Eyes To The Soul
by Achilles1011
Summary: At sixteen most people will receive one half of a mark on their wrist, the other half belonging to their soulmate but sometimes these marks do not appear leaving the person forever guessing as to their other half's identity. Lauren Lewis is one of them, but one night while on shift in the ER a mysterious brunette comes in and everything in her world changes. AU. All Human.
1. Chapter 1

I sigh as I look up from my place at the nurses station, I was finishing filling in my chart for the last patient that I had seen. It was a relatively boring night but busy because of the recent start of flu season, thankfully that could most be pawned off to the younger residents, leaving me to have a fun-filled evening of ankle and knee pain.

I rub my eyes and yawn slightly as I glance over at the clock, it was a little past 11 at night, although thankfully it was a Tuesday so there was less of a chance that something interesting would happen tonight. Only another six hours and then I would be off for the day.

I yawned again as I rubbed my eyes, I hated working night shift. It was normally fairly slow at this time of night, especially since it was a weekday. Although sometimes things would settle down for a few hours only to pick-up again because of various people and their misadventures with alcohol.

I slowly begin to go over he paints that I still had to check in on before they could be discharged.

Bay two's allergic reaction although that seemed to be calming down, so she would most likely be discharged soon. I needed to ask Francine about her redness and the swelling on her face, and then go and check her stats again; if she had improved more since the last time I had checked I would be able to discharge her.

Still need to get an x-ray for the man in Bay seven to check and see if his ankle was broken or not and if it was I would need to call for orthopedics to come and set it or admit him depending on what exactly was going on down there.

Hmm… anyone else that needed urgent attention?

Oh right Bay 11, child presenting with abdominal pain in lower right quadrant, fever, nausea and vomiting, rebound tenderness. Needed to call paediatrics and admit her, she had signs that pointed to appendicitis, just need to double check the white count from her blood draw and then ah… ultrasound to confirm. And order pain medications for her… she had been screaming and crying the last time I had seen her, needed to follow up with her and then call paediatrics and… who was on call for paediatric surgery tonight?

Need to get one of the nurses to take care of that and call the ultrasound tech… hmm…

I yawn again as I glance up from the chart I had been finishing filling in for the man in Bay seven. Without meaning to I began to listen to a pair of nurses talking, well gossiping really… they did that a lot.

"Did you hear about Jackie?"

"You mean about her and that fellow from radiology?"

I rolled my eyes at the nurses and their gossip.

"They think their brands match." I had to roll my eyes at the idea of that, of course they would think their brands matched, especially if they were in love with each other. But so often the brands looked so similar it was impossible for a human to tell them apart, one small difference in your half of the pattern here of there. But it made all the difference when it came to the match and to the whole soulmate issue.

I sigh and shake my head, the odds of the brands ever matching were low at best. Three billion people in the entire world, the odds of finding your soulmate were incredibly low, some, particularly the ones who were obsessed would find them eventually but others never did. Some died lonely deaths and others married knowing that it was possible their partner would one day leave them because they would the person with a matching brand.

Others, like me, woke up without their brand on their sixteenth birthday, which is when it appeared in the normal population. I sigh and shake my head, glancing down at the wristwatch that hid my bare wrist. If I ever went without it I got stared at, I could catch sight of pity in the eyes of people who caught sight of my unmarked wrist.

It was because people couldn't imagine having to go without the idea of eventually being able to find the other half of themselves, their brand belonging to only two people in the entire world. They thought of us as lonely because we didn't have that hope, we had no idea who our soulmate would be and we would stumble through the days without meeting them, and even if we did we would probably never know.

I sigh and shake my head only to see one of the nurses standing in front of me a chart in her hand.

"Bay nine." I sigh and reach out to tack the chart while handing over the ones for Bays seven and 11. "11 needs an ultrasound and I need a rush on her white cell count also give her some acetaminophen until we can get her upstairs okay? And seven needs an x-ray on his ankle."

"Right away."

"Thank-you." I mumble as I open the chart and begin to make my ways over towards bay nine.

Laceration to forehead as well as a complaint of vertigo. I quickly read over the case. She had seemingly fallen because her roommate left shoes lying around? And then she fell and cut her forehead open on the side of the coffee table.

I sigh and shake my head. I've seen this injury before many times, but it was often in kids or teens who were still growing and who were a little bit on the clumsy side. I rarely see this type of injury in adult, but it does happen sometimes. At least she doesn't seem to have anything that would indicate a concussion, although I should probably still preform a basic neurological exam.

But still.

Stitches. I sigh and shake my head and smile a little to myself, there were many reasons that I had gone into emergency medicine, and one of them was not because of my love of stitching up cuts. But still the ability to make a difference, no matter how small, was a good place to start.

I glance down at the chart again and make a note to double check on the reason for the vertigo, if it was caused by the same injury that lead to the laceration then that would probably need to be checked up on. But I would need to conduct a basic exam before I could do anything else.

I look down again and try to see if there are any notes from a med student or one of the lower year residents but there doesn't appear to be anything.

So I'm examining her first after the nurse huh?

The other ones must be busy with some of the more "enjoyable" tasks of being in one of the lower years. I look up and realize that I must have arrived at the Bay, the curtain drawn around the bed in a attempt to give the patient some degree of privacy.

I reach pull back the blue privacy curtain that must have been pulled around the bed when the nurse left after bringing the patient into the main area. I smile lightly as I walk into the sectioned off area of the floor, my eyes still glued to the chart in front of me.

"Hello." I say as I look up from the chart momentarily to confirm that I was in the correct bay before my eyes went back to scanning the chart. I quickly mentally taking note of her vitals, for the most part she seemed normal and stable. I can see a brunette woman sitting with her back turned to me on the bed, her hand holding something, most likely her phone.

"Hello." I repeat again, louder this time, it seems to catch her attention as her back arches slightly and I see her tense visibly. I simply walk around to the other side of the bed.

The woman in front of me was stunningly beautiful. I froze for a moment as I simply took her in. She was gorgeous.

"Doc?" I hear her say aloud. Clearing my throat quickly I look up at her and smile. I can see why she must have come here for the laceration, it was a rather ugly one at the side of her forehead, and some blood was still oozing out of it.

"Hello." I say again dumfounded. Despite the laceration on her forehead she looked beautiful, her eyes, her nose, her body… I quickly avert my eyes when I realize that they had begun to drift down to her stare at her chest.

That was so unprofessional. I look up at her again and I could see a smirk already forming on her lips, a mischievous look in her eyes.

Oh boy.

"Hello"

Why is the only thing that can come out of my mouth hello!

I hear her laugh, a light sound that caused her brown eyes to shine in a way that I found far more endearing then I should have. "Hi. But I believe that we've already covered that haven't we?"

Her voice sounds melodic to my ears, it was beautiful just like the rest of her.

Oh stop it please.

I sigh as I place her chart on the bedside.

I'm overcome with the sudden urge to touch her when I see her hand drift vaguely across the bed, seemingly reaching for her phone.

I reach out, so tempted to let my hand run over the back of her's, to feel the skin that I'm sure is silky smooth and warm. I can't help but wonder what it would feel like to run my fingers over hers. I can see her fidget slightly before she turns over her hand, exposing her wrist and a mark that I should have expected to see, but surprisingly I found myself hoping that it would not be there.

I sigh and force myself to focus, silently berating myself for the things that I was feeling and the urges that I had to repress, the desire to reach out and touch her, and the desire that I felt for her. These feelings that I'm getting for this woman, this patient are highly inappropriate an unprofessional.

Yet despite that I find myself wanting her and desiring her in ways that are so highly inappropriate. I quickly take a breath and force myself to look up at her, focusing on her eyes, trying not to notice the way that they sparkle when they look at me.

I glanced up at her face and feel myself beginning to smile when she smiles at me, a beautiful smile that causes her face to light up and her eyes begin to sparkle. I can't help but think about how breathtaking she looks when she smiles up at me and I have this sudden and inexplicable desire to ensure that this beautiful smile never leaves her face.

"You're beautiful." I here myself murmur aloud before I could stop myself. I quickly close my mouth and clear my throat.

Stupid.

Stupid.

You're beautiful? Really? Stupid.

She's a patient!

I clear my throat again and avert my gaze for a few seconds before I turn back to the woman sitting on the bed. Instead of mortification or anger all I can see is amusement shinning through in beautiful brown eyes.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled before I stand up and walk over to the wall near Bo and grab a pair of gloves from the box sitting on the wall.

"It's fine. Really ahh…" I could hear the pause in the woman's voice as if she was trying to recall something.

"Dr. Lewis. Dr. Lauren Lewis. PGY-3 in emergency medicine." I say as I turn around. I smile sheepishly as I look at the extraordinarily beautiful creature in front of me. "I must have forgotten to introduce myself…" I quickly glance down at the chart before I see that it's blank.

I sigh as I close the chart and stare up at her again forcing myself to smile. "It would seem that the intake person forgot to take down your name."

"Bo. My name's Bo. It's very nice to meet you Dr. Lewis" I swear I could feel her eyes travelling up and down my body as she spoke, I had to fight against the impulse to turn around and just kiss her right then and there.

What was even happening to me?

I never am attracted to my patients; they are always just patients to me.

So why was this different? Why was she different?

Was it because she was the most breathtakingly beautiful woman that I had ever seen?

Stop it Lauren! I told myself as I put the chart back down at the foot of the bed.

I take a breath and force myself to exhale silently.

All right Lauren this is just like any other patient, she is here because she needed medical attention and you are here to provide it.

Not to jump her bones.

Okay, just don't jump the patient and try to think about how beautiful she is and…

I looked up at Bo and smiled again before I see her smile at me again. "Something wrong doctor?" I quickly reached out and grabbed her chart flipping it open at random. I glanced back down at her chart forcing myself to ignore the flirtatious tone in her voice.

You need to treat her Lauren. You just need to treat her and send her on her way or admit her to the hospital and send her upstairs so that she is someone else's problem.

That shouldn't be so hard right?

Right?

I glanced down at the chart. The only thing it seemed that Bo had been complaining about was some localized pain to the upper left section of the scalp as well as a mild case of dizziness. I took a breath and forced myself to look back up at her. The only thing that I could see wrong with her was a small cut on her forehead.

"So the only things you're complaining of are some dizziness and some pain localized to the area of the laceration?"

"English please?"

"The only thing that hurts is the cut on your forehead? No headaches?"

"No doc. I'm fine, just took a little spill because my roommate left some of her shoes out." I sigh and shake my head as I mentally file that one away under the more ridiculous reasons for a visit to the ER. Sometimes we get the most serious cases in here but other times we get the most ridiculous.

Roommates who accidently leave their things out is not the worst story I've ever heard and this also wouldn't be the first time that I've heard it. I shake my head a little bit and smile at Bo again. "Roommate huh? I'm guessing she loves shoes then? Or is she just messy?"

"Both." Bo replies with laughter and I feel myself smile in turn against my will. I can't help but notice how beautiful Bo looks when she laughs, the way that her eyes sparkle and the dimples that appear when she smiles. She looks beautiful but after a moment I see her stop wincing slightly, her wrist turning towards me slightly.

I can't help but notice the mark that adorns her wrist, the bold black of her mark standing out clearly against the pale skin of her wrist. I could see the intricate shape, the swirls of black dipping in and out looking almost as if they were streams of water captures on Bo's wrist. There were also circles at the edges of some of the streams, some joined together in a pattern that reminded me of a helix, others simply curling as if they were the crest of waves, a few diagonal or straight lines marred the otherwise beautiful pattern in a way to give it a unique mark, separate from the others. It looked beautiful, and I was sure that many painters would be jealous by the complex and intricate beauty of the mark she bore on her wrist.

But sadly there was one thing that marred the beauty of the pattern in front of me. The bold black lines on the upper and lower part of the mark that formed her half of the brand, the black line above and below from which the streams and waves started off, the only symbol common to all of the marks, forming an open rectangle over the underside of her wrist.

I could feel a small twinge of jealous for the person who bore the other half of this mark, the man or woman who she may someday come across and be pulled to in the way I was being pulled to her now. I sighed slightly as I fidget with my wrist watch, turning it over a few times in a nervous tick.

Looking down for a brief moment I fiddled with my watch a little more, lifting it ever so slightly and revealing the pale milky skin of my own wrist, the smooth expanse of white and the blue bulge of my veins unmarred by the blackness of the mark. The thing that marked me different from all the others, and the thing that made me hide my wrist with a watch.

"You're mark is beautiful." I say as I look up at her, she smiles at me slightly and turns her wrist over to reveal the half completed mark on her wrist in it's fully glory. Without realizing it I had reached my hand out, an overwhelming desire flowing through me to trace the patterns on the marks.

I could a magnetic pull, driving me to stroke the skin at Bo's wrist, to trace the intricate patters that looked as if they had been put there by the stroke of an artist's brush instead of her body. Before I could stop myself I had pulled off one of my gloves, the loud snap of the material barely registering in my ear as I stretched my fingers, shaking them slightly at the sudden lack of barriers.

A few moments later my fingers grazed the delicate skin of her wrist. Even with only the smallest and briefest of touches I could fell her skin's warmth; it's smooth, and the softness against my own skin. I could feel a jolt, small sparks against the tips of my fingers where they had brushed against her skin.

I could feel her eyes on me, the urge to touch her becoming greater and so much harder to fight. I looked up to see Bo staring at me with a half lidded gaze, barely concealed desire in her eyes.

I gulped at the heavy look in her eyes and at the feelings that they evoked in me, the feeling of warmth between my thighs, but more peculiarly it also sent my heart into an excited fit, but not at the feelings of arousal she was evoking within me with only a single look. I could feel it pounding underneath my breast; it's beat loud and echoing in my ears.

Why was she looking at me like this?

Why did I feel this desire? This draw to her?

Why did I feel this inexplicable magnetism, this urge to touch her, this desire for _her_.

Why? Of all the people I have ever meet of all the people that I have ever felt desire for, the heat of physical attraction and of lust, why did it feel different with her.

"Lauren." She heard her name spoken, a voice whispering it, barely above a breath. I looked up at Bo, there was something on my lips, something that I could not quite articulate.

Looking down I allowed my fingers to come into contact with her wrist, allowed them to rest more firmly against the skin there for a few moments before I removed all but a single finger. One which slowly began to trace out the swirls and the waves of the pattern on her wrist.

"Lauren?" I heard her voice murmur again, and when I looked up at her, I could see that her face was all to suddenly to close to mine. This woman that I barely knew was so close to me, her face so close to mine, if we were to close the distance our lips would touch in the barest of kisses.

"What am I doing? What are we doing?" I say, much louder then I intended. I take a step back as I tremble a little in place at the realization of what I had nearly done with this person? I took a step back and quickly tried to withdraw my finger only to feel a warm hand envelop my own colder one in a tight grip.

"What are you doing?" I asked Bo. I had to squash the urge to panic, to run away, to try and turn this into a scene in order to allow my escape.

I could not though. I needed to treat her and I need to stitch-up her cut before I could pass her off to someone else to monitor her for a little while in case she begins to show signs of a concussion and to keep an eye on her dizziness.

But that warm hand holding my own was distracting, the way it held my finger in place. It was almost as if I could feel the beat of her pulse underneath my finger, it was fast almost as fast as mine.

"Bo you have to let me go, I need to examine you before I can stitch up your cut."

"Lauren take off your watch." The voice was firm and demanding. I could see something in her eyes, a burning desire and something buried deeper. I didn't know her well enough but I could have almost sworn it was hope.

Hope for what?

Gently I turn my wrist in her grip until I find the week spot before I tug away from her hand, smiling apologetically I was about to reach over and grab a new glove when I felt a burning sensation in my wrist. Stopping for a moment I frown as I move my wrist back and forth trying to stretch things out.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine just a kink in my wrist."

"I hope you don't get one of those while you're stitching me back together."

"Afraid I'll accidentally sew your forehead to your eyeball?"

"I don't think that's possible. But you're the doctor, doctor so if you need to sew my eyeball to my forehead then feel free so long as I can blame you for all the looks I'll be getting on the street afterwards."

"Feel free to…" I can't finish my sentence as the burning sensation in my wrist turns into a burning sensation, followed shortly by bursts of sharp cutting pain. I gasp in pain as my knees buckle causing me to fall to the ground. I move my good hand down to my wrist and grip it tightly in an automatic reaction to the pain, as if the meager pressure that my grip could provide would offer any relief from the pain.

I have to chock back a scream as another wave of pain travels through my arm and registers in my brain. I can feel the cutting and the burning, it was as if something was being carved into my wrist, the skin being opened something poured into it before it is fused back together with a laser.

"Lauren?" I hear my name being called, the voice sounded so distant. I want to respond to it, to reassure the voice that I'm alright that I'll be fine in a few minutes, as soon as the pain in my wrist wears off. But all I can do is let out another chocked gasp as my grip on my wrist tightens, the cool metal of my watch becoming rapidly heated from my body.

I feel warm.

Everything around me feels far to warm.

I try to force myself to stand up, it should be embarrassing, to have a patient see me like this, to have let her see me collapse in front of her. I could hear someone shouting something but what it was I couldn't make out, all I could focus on was the pain of the cutting and the burning.

Maybe if I could get myself to the bathroom and run some water over the skin there I would be able to cool it down and help whatever was wrong with it. But when I tried to stand the only thing I could see was the world spinning, the blue of the curtains and the grey of the floor blurring together into one giant mass. I could hear a hacking cough begin as the muscles in my stomach contracted for the first time and I forced myself to turn my head away in case I became sick.

But all I could do was close my eyes and hope as I felt another round of coughs rattle my body, the urge to be sick was overwhelming as the pain continued to batter my body. I could feel someone calling, screaming in my ear.

It was so loud, all I wanted to do was tell them to be quiet. I could feel the pain in my wrist getting worse, the heat that was searing through it, as if something had been set on fire within my skin and the flames were looking for a way out. The pulling and cutting sensation was worse, as if a thousand tiny knives were carving into my skin while retractors held the cuts open exposing them to air and never allowing them to scar over, leaving me open and wounded, bleeding out. I brought my hands closer to my body, curling in on myself in an attempt to escape from the pain and to protect the limb from being hurt further.

I could feel all to well the hand that had come to rest on my shoulder, my body becoming hypersensitive to touch as my nerves were overcome with the pain.

"Don't touch me." I try to say, but it only comes out as half chocked garble, incomprehensible even to my own ears. But still even if the message had been communicated I could still feel that same hand on my back, the warm touch that it provided, felt through both my coat and scrub top, both a soothing comfort and simply another point of burning pain. I wanted to try and shrug it off but at the same time I couldn't bring myself to get rid of the little comfort I had in this situation.

I tried to force myself to take deep breaths, to make sure that I didn't hold it, but despite everything I could feel the pain only getting worse. Those thousand little knives were carving deeper and deeper into my flesh, the burning following as soon as their tiny blades are withdrawn. Centred on my wrist but it still burned up my arm and caused a dull aching pain to move throughout my body.

I tried to force my eyes open, to see what was going on around me when my ears registered what sounded like harried footsteps across the floor. The squeaking of the linoleum all to close to my ear, but the bright lights of the room only burned my eyes as I opened them, as if the overhead lights were a thousand suns rather then simply being artificial light causing me to close my eyes again in order to escape from the wrath of the lights. I could have sworn I heard frenzied shouting and the sound of the curtains being pulled back, the strange sound that the rollers made on their tracks.

I nearly screamed when another wave of pain hit me, stronger then the two before it.

Fire.

That was all I could feel.

My entire body was on fire and there was nothing that I could do about it.

I tightened my grip on my wrist and pulled the limb as close to my body as I could, trying to protect it from anything that could or would harm it, but the increased pressure only made the feeling of the tiny knives worse. I clenched my eyes shut as I felt my hand begin to spasm sending another wave of fire through my body.

I let out a scream when I felt another hand come to rest against my body, it wasn't like the one resting on my back, the soothing touch that still burned, this one simply caused my body to freeze in pain.

It was too much, it was all far to much.

This had to be the definition of agony.

And yet the blessed darkness of unconsciousness would not come. I was aware, although barely still and there was no escape from the pain.

Finally the buzzing and the sounds that were coming from around me began to fade away, my hearing finally falling away and my desire to try and open my eyes again was thin at best.

I was completely unaware of my surroundings now, the only thing I could focus on was the pain and trying to find some way to end it, find some way to try and end this horrible agony. I curled in on myself further in a primal attempt to comfort myself and tried to press my forehead against the cool floor underneath me, but nothing helped, nothing could help the fire burning through my body. The flames inside of me were trying to escape through my skin only to be meet with resistance causing them to instead burn me from the inside out.

I tried to bite back another scream when another wave of agony overcame me as I'm sure more people touched me but the only thing that I could register was pain, the searing agony that started in my wrist and spread through my body. I clenched my eyes and grit my teeth in an attempt to prevent another sound from escaping me, maybe if they thought I was better they would leave me alone, they would stop trying to touch me.

But instead the burning sensation only increased, the feeling of the pressure against my back getting worse. I tried to fight back a scream, but honestly I'm not sure if I was successful or not.

Another wave of agony, stronger then before. The tiny knives back at work, carving deeper layers into my flesh as if they were trying to mark me, to permanently brand me, the burning following behind cauterizing the wounds to make sure that I don't bleed out so my body can continue this torturous pain.

I just want everything to fade, to escape from this overwhelming and excruciating pain.

Where did any of this even come from?

Why…

What was that light in front of me? The little ball of glowing light that lit up the darkness surrounded me.

It hovered in the distance for a few moments before it whizzed forward, moving up and down around me, almost as if it was happy to see me.

Without even thinking about it I began to laugh as the excited little ball of light continued to zoom around me and around my head.

"Hi!" I laughed as I reached out to try and catch it only to feel it zoom away from me again.

For some reason all I could feel here was joy as the tiny ball of light continued to zoom around me, and for some reason I had the urge to chase it just like a little kid would chase a butterfly. Almost as if it could read my mind it zoomed around my head once before it took off into the far distance of the darkness.

Laughing I take off after it.

It was strange that I felt so much happiness at such a little action, at small gestures and movements I have never done before.

I stop running my joy fading as I realize that this was the first time I had ever taken off running after something.

I could see the little twinkling light in the distance stop before it came zooming back to me when it noticed that I had stopped running. I could see the little light zooming around my head, almost as if it was trying to ask what was wrong.

"That's the first time I've ever one something like that." I say to the light as I reach out to try and touch it again. This time it moves so that it hovers at eye level with me for a few moments before it zooms forward and bops me on the head right between my eyes.

Without thinking my hand flew up to my forehead, causing me to whack myself on my forehead where the tiny ball had tapped it moments earlier. I looked up to see it shaking back and forth almost as if it was laughing at me.

"Are you trying to say tag your it?" It bopped up and down once in response before it took off again.

Shaking my head I laughed before I began to chase after it as well.

I let out a groan as I blinked my eyes open for a moment before I closed them again trying to escape from the bright lights that were over my head.

Where was I?

What had happened?

That was when I noticed something had changed, that something was missing.

There was no more pain.

It was faded, gone. The burning sensation and the tiny knives were gone. I felt myself smile slightly at the realization. I was exhausted, my body tired from whatever had happened to it, but relieved. The pain was gone!

The second thing I noticed was the change in my body's position, I was lain out on my back, something relatively hard underneath me. I groaned when I heard the beep-beep of a heart monitor coming from nearby and something cool dripping into my arm.

Forcing my eyes open again I let out another groan when I realize where exactly I am.

"Sleeping beauty is finally awake I see." I hear a familiar voice tease from the corner. Sure enough when I turn my head I see a familiar head of blonde hair, piercing green eyes staring back into my own, a look of concern in them masked by displeasure.

"Nice to see you too Tamsin." I grumble out as I try to push myself into a sitting position only to feel hands come to rest on my shoulders and begin to push me back down onto the thing that had to be a gurney. I had fallen asleep on one to many of these uncomfortable contraptions to not recognize what it was underneath me now. I could see Tamsin hovering over me, her face screwed up in annoyance but as always her eyes betrayed her.

She looked worried.

"So care to tell me why the hospital called me in the middle of the night telling me that you had passed out on the job?" I can only let out a groan as my head falls back against the uncomfortable hospital pillow, the case scratchy against the back of my neck. "Well Lauren?"

I turn my head to the side, I don't want to look at her eyes right now, I could still feel the worry and concern in them as they look down at me even if Tamsin's face was screwed up in a mask of annoyance. "Seriously Lauren what the hell happened?"

I sighed and close my eyes for a minute trying to gather my thoughts, I bring my hand up to rub at my forehead only to notice a bandage tapped to my wrist, the normally white cotton soaked red with my blood. So that part hadn't been my pain-crazed mind hallucinating, my skin actually had been splitting apart.

"Laur." Tamsin's voice whispers, lower this time. I turn my head to that I can look at her again.

I smile up at her as best as I can. "I'm fine Tamsin."

"Bullshit Lauren. I don't get called if you're fine."

"Would you believe I touched a patient's wrist and passed out because of her beauty?"

"Lauren…"

Wait.

I touched Bo's wrist. I had touched her, had been drawn like a magnet to her presence. The bleeding in my wrist and the pain that felt like something was being carved in it.

I gasped when I realized what could have happened. Quickly I bring my good hand over to the bloody bandage covering my wrist and begin to fiddle with the tape trying to undo it. I can feel a hand come to rest against my wrist, gently guiding it away from the bandage.

"You're not supposed to touch that Lauren and you know that. Do you want the bleeding to start again." She talks to me as if she was talking to a child, trying to explain to them why they shouldn't take off the bandage that they hate so much and want to rip off. Normally I would listen to her and normally I wouldn't fidget with the bandage until I had to change it but there was something that I needed to see and the only way to do that was to rip the bandage off.

I looked up at Tamsin and yanked by wrist out of her grip, wincing when I disturb the IV catheter. "There's something I need to see and the only way to do that is to look underneath the bandage."

I could see the look of disbelief in her eyes before she rolled them and began to press me back down onto the gurney. "What did they give you?" I heard her mumble before speaking out loud "I'm going to go tell the nurse that you're awake. Do not touch that bandage."

I shake my head and decide to ignore Tamsin for now. She didn't know what happened, she had no idea what I was feeling in that moment, there was something that I _had_ to check on.

I quickly move my hand back to the bandage and begin to fiddle with the tape at one of the corners of the rectangular bandage. Quickly I get my nail underneath it and begin to peel the tape back, bringing the gauze with it but before I can peel it away fully I hear an annoyed sound and feel a hand grabbing my wrist.

"What do you think you're doing? Do you want to start the bleeding again?" I ignored Tamsin as she began to berate me for being an idiot. Pulling away the corner of the bandage had been all I needed to confirm what I had suspected.

Where the skin of my wrist had been white a few hours or minutes or seconds or however long had passed it was now emboldened with a thick black line.

My mark had appeared.

I reach my hand out and place it on Tamsin's cheek, forcing her to stop her tirade against my stupidity and her various insults of my knowledge of medicine, as few insults to my intelligence thrown in for good measure. I forced her head to turn towards me.

"I know what I'm doing Tamsin, there was something I had to check on, a hunch for what caused the things that happened to me. And I was right." I brought the wrist up into her line of sight, the limp portion of the bandage hanging down and revealing the black of the mark that had appeared on my wrist.

I could see her eyes widen in surprise as she looked down at the mark on my wrist. "What does it mean?" I heard her ask me, her eyes turn towards me wide and in shock.

She knew exactly what it meant; it was rare but not unheard of.

But the idea of it was surreal, it was just so out of this world

"It means that the woman who I touched, the patient Bo? She's most likely my soulmate. Or at least she was enough to trigger the reaction to make the mark appear."

"So know what."

"We track her down I guess."

"Oh hell no there is no way in hell I am about to get dragged into that mess."

"Well then I guess I have to go and explore and find her on my own. Into the big dangerous city, all on my own."

"Fine."

So know I just have to track her down and see if the mark I have looks anything like hers.

Only problem.

I only have her first name.

* * *

**A/N: Thank-you so much for taking the time to read this, reviews are always welcome and appreciated as well as constructive criticism and ways by which to improve. Thank-you as well for the favourites and the follows. I can't promise frequent updates but this will get updated and it will not get forgotten about. **


	2. Chapter 2

"Dr. Lewis?" I hear a soft voice call out from the other side of the room. Glancing up I can see an old and wrinkled, but strong and familiar hand grabbing at the privacy curtain that had been drawn around me.

"Francine?" I call out gently in response, wondering if it truly was the kind old nurse who had shown me so much since my first days here.

"How did you guess, Dr. Lewis?" I hear her call out in laughter as she pulls back the curtain. It takes her only a few seconds to begin tutting, and for half of a second I have to wonder why until I glance down at my bandaged wrist and realize why she is making that sound. I can see her old form walk towards me, her slowed walking speed and her appearance the things which betray her age.

If you only heard her voice and knew her personality you wouldn't think of her as a day over 40, but really she was pushing her mid-sixties.

"You know better then to fiddle with bandages, Dr. Lewis. Now I have to change it once again," I hear her mutter with a small sigh, I can feel her hand grab my wrist gently and turn it to face towards her. "Although the cuts do appear to be healing well."

I can't help but glance up at her, does she not realize what happened to me and the reason that I passed out? That the "cut" on my wrist was in fact the black lines of a soul mate mark?

She was one of the few people who had known that I had never born the mark until today. I rarely told people, instead preferring to hide my wrist with a watch, I think the rumor I heard last time was that my pattern was so ugly it would scare the patients if anyone saw it. That was certainly better then the one before it, which said my mark, had faded to grey because my soul mate had died and I didn't want the pitying stares of others if they were to see it.

I still got pitying stares when that rumor had been floating around.

Although it had been for completely the wrong reasons.

"They aren't cut's are they?" I mumble as I glance towards the opposite side of the bay I had taken up residence in for the last several hours.

"I see you already figured that out have you, Dr. Lewis?"

"It's why I peeled the bandage off," I mutter in response as I glance down at my wrist, the black lines of the mark's boarder visible for the world to see as Francis pulls the bandage off the wound, continuing to tut.

"I'll be back in a moment, Dr. Lewis. I just need to retrieve some materials to bandage that wound of yours and then we'll send you on you're way. Ms…" I could see Francine pause and turn towards me.

"Tamsin." I hear the familiar gruff voice call out from where she had taken up residence once again in the chair on the other side of the room. "My name is Tamsin."

I almost rolled my eyes at Tamsin's attitude; of course she would default back to her usual sunny disposition when another person was around.

Francine gave a strange look and said, "No need to be impolite young lady, now if you would come with me so we can get your friend signed out…"

I could hear Tamsin begin to grumble as she stood up from the chair.

Just as they were about to walk out of the area that I was occupying I finally remembered to ask about the woman who's fault it may be that I was even in this bed to begin with. "What about the woman I was treating- Bo?"

"She was taken care of by Dr. Nelson and discharged, Dr. Lewis. Would you like her chart to fill in while you wait for your friend?" I nodded quickly and called out my thanks to Francine before the curtain closes behind them and I allow my head to fall back onto the bed.

Dr. Nelson was the one to sew her up in the end. Well at least it wasn't one of the lower year residents, but still I couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed at the fact that my attending had to finish up my work.

And who knows how many more people were present when I passed out.

The nurses were going to have fun with me weren't they?

It would be all over the hospital before the end of tomorrow wouldn't it? I sigh and close my eyes as my head falls backwards onto the uncomfortable gurney below me. I could feel a yawn coming and when I moved my hand to cover it I couldn't help but wince slightly when I tugged the IV catheter again.

"Dr. Lewis?" I hear a soft voice call out, and when I open my eyes again I can see Francine standing at the opening for the Bay, gently pulling the curtains closed.

"Yes?"

"There seems to be a slight complication with your request for the chart."

"What is it Francine?" I ask with my eyebrow raised. She would have only been discharged a few hours ago at most, they usually keep the chart on the floor at least until morning because the night shift is a little bit on the lazy side most of the time.

"They appear to have lost her chart."

I allow a groan to escape as my head falls backward onto the gurney.

Of course it wouldn't be that simple.

"Of course," I mutter aloud.

The only response I get is a slight chuckle followed by, "The course of true love never did run smooth, Dr. Lewis. Now let's see to your arm while your friend fills out your discharge paper work shall we?"

* * *

"So…" I mumble as I stare out the window as we speed along the deserted highway leading back to our apartment building.

The only response I get from Tamsin for a little while is silence. I clear my throat slightly in a gesture for her to say _something _to fill the awkward silence that has begun to creep in between us. We hadn't really talked since we had gotten into the car after I had been discharged, with strict instructions to rest, and that Larry would cover the rest of my shift.

"This isn't going to turn into another Katherine is it?" I heard Tamsin mutter. Turning my head towards her voice I could see the street lights reflecting off of her eyes, giving me the little light that I needed in order to see her expression. I could see depths of worry that were only beginning to be hinted at in her emerald green eyes, the slightly panicked look to them at the though that this might become another incident like my ex.

I sigh as I force back the torrent of emotions and memories that come with the mention of her name, the heartbreak and the sadness. The questions I had begun to ask myself after we had broken up.

The fact that she had even made me question my self-worth.

My desire to be a doctor after all of the work I had put in, after everything I had done to get myself to the point I had been.

I clenched my teeth, my hand lightly grabbing the fabric of my scrub pants as it turned into a fist. I could feel the anger boiling over, the cover for the sadness that I had felt for so long after she had left me. I forced my hand to loosen it's grip on my pants and my jaw to relax before I began to speak again. "No. I'm not… never again Tamsin, it will never happen again."

It will never turn into a repeat of Katherine.

I had learned my lesson.

And I would never open myself up in that way again, I would never let myself get hurt like that ever again.

I sighed as my hand moved up to brush a hand through my hair, only to wince a little when I feel the tugging sensation of my newly marked wrist, covered in a fresh white gauze pad. I knew that underneath that bandage was a bold black mark, suddenly the bare wrist that had defined me, that had separated me from others for so long was gone.

I had been as simple as tracing the pattern of a mark on the wrist of another woman.

"So…" I could hear her trail off awkwardly, more then likely unsure of how exactly to bring up what we would inevitably need to talk about.

How was I supposed to find this woman when they had lost her chart? Which meant that all the useful information it contained had been lost.

Although given that the triage nurse had forgotten to even take down her first name to begin with, and her last now that I think about it. I felt somewhat dubious about how much use it would have really and truly provided. Actually the only thing I could remember from the chart was her patient number and another number that must have been her OHIP number.

Really?

I tried to recall the number but all I could draw was a blank.

So the only thing that I have now is an OHIP number that I can't remember, and a first name that I'm not even sure how it is spelled.

Bo…

Like the man's name.

Or Bo, or possibly even Bow if her parents had a sick enough sense of humour.

They must have if they had named their daughter Bo…

Unless of course that was a nickname in which case the name could literally be anything.

Or an alias.

But no they had her OHIP number…

I let out an audible groan as I allowed my head to fall back against the seat.

Why was I even trying to find this woman, one that I barely knew beyond a few moments of interaction before I passed out when I was supposed to be treating her.

I could feel my hand grip my scrub pants again as it slowly dawns on me the road that I'm beginning to drift down. The thought and the idea that I might have finally meet my soulmate, it was daunting and something that I never thought would happen to me because I had walked around for the first 29 years of my life without a mark on my wrist.

Now?

I suddenly had a marked wrist; suddenly I was like the vast majority of people in the world. There would be no more pitying stares if I were to walk around without my watch on my wrist. I was like I had been longing to be when I was younger, the fact that I had ached for my mark to appear and had begged someone, anyone who would listen for it to appear.

Now it had and I had no idea what to do about it.

Because the simple fact was that I had been burned and scared far to deeply by a person who had worn a mark on her wrist so long ago. I had taken the risk and known it could happen, but I had never thought that it was a possibility.

"Oi!" I hear a voice call out loudly and clearly, snapping me from my spiraling train of thoughts. "I can see your face beginning to darken, Laur. I know that Katherine did a number on you but…"

I sigh as I complete the familiar phrase. "I can't let one bad experience with one person and one mark destroy my chance at happiness. I _know _Tamsin. But still…"

"It's hard because of how badly she burned you, how deeply she hurt you. I was there Lauren, I remember it all." I could hear her sigh briefly, an expression I couldn't quite recognize crossing her face. It looked almost like sadness, but with a small hint of something else on her face, something that I couldn't quite place.

Suddenly the car began to accelerate once again and the meager light that the street lamp had provided faded casting the interior of the car into darkness once more. But despite it all I could feel something shift in the air of the car, a sort of tension beginning to seep in where it had not been in a long time.

I could sense the direction that this conversation was heading in, and it was territory that I would very much like to remain in the past.

What could I say to try and divert her attention away from Katherine and away from her anger towards my ex-girlfriend.

Wait!

Earlier today, that trauma that had come in.

I'd had to use the defibrillator for the first time in a while.

She loved it when I used the defibrillator!

"I used the defibrillator today." I could hear the small intake of breath and couldn't help the smirk that blossomed on my face. She really did love it when I used the defibrillator and told her about it.

"Are you trying to change the subject on me?" I can hear the seriousness in her tone and when I glanced over at her face I can see the streetlights just highlighting the look in her eyes, in particular the annoyance that seems to blossom in them. I should have known that she would pick up on my admittedly sad attempt to change the subject.

"I just don't want to go down that path again Tamsin, it's…" I glance over at the clock on the dash to see 3:45 blinking back up at me. "Apparently almost 4 o'clock in the morning. I don't feel like dragging up Katherine right now."

I could hear a small huff escapes from Tamsin before I saw her turn towards me for a brief second as we slowed down again, the small blinker on the dash alerting me that we must have been turning into the parking garage for our apartment.

"Do you have your key thing?" I sigh before I reach for the lanyard hidden underneath my scrub top and pull out the device that Tamsin needed in order to unlock the door to the parking garage.

Thankfully it was still the middle of the night so I somehow doubt that we have to worry about a line up forming behind us as Tamsin fumbles in an attempt to find the garage key.

Again.

I could feel her eyes on me for a moment before I realized that I had forgotten to hand it to her. Hastily I pull the lanyard over my head and hand the thing to her before she can begin to tease me about my memory. I can see her flash me a small smile before she roles down the window and leans over to press the black device to the equally black keypad, a few moments later the beige garage door begins to roll backward and Tamsin slowly inches her car down the steep incline.

* * *

"You mentioned earlier that you used the defibrillator earlier today?"

"You're bringing that up now?" I ask as I fumble with the keys to open the door to our apartment.

"Yeah I am." I can't help the small amount of laughter that escapes from me as I fumble with the doorknob.

Stupid, stubborn thing. Was it twist then lift or lift then twist?

"You have to lift and twist Tamsin." I hear a smug voice say in a bad impersonation of my own.

Glancing back at Tamsin I sigh slightly and role my eyes before I proceed to lift and twist the doorknob, finally opening the dark brown door to our apartment. Reaching over I flicked on the light in the entrance way, stepping aside in order to pull of my running shoes.

I could hear Tamsin's light footfalls as she followed me into the apartment that we had shared since fourth-year university. I allowed a yawn to escape as I'm suddenly overcome with a wave of exhaustion.

Reaching up to rub my eyes lightly I quickly made my way towards my bedroom. I can hear Tamsin shuffling off towards the kitchen and begin to rummage around in the cupboards, probably looking for her vodka.

I look over at my bed with a feeling of sweet longing. The beige duvet covering the warm blue sheets of my warm and soft bed, so comfortable. So warm… I could feel another yawn escape, my eyes closing as my hand moved to cover my mouth in an automatic reflex.

It would be so easy to just collapse into bed right now; I was so tempted to do just that.

But at the same time I also needed to shower I thought as I shuddered a little bit at the feeling of the grime that was covering my skin, especially after I had taken my little spill onto the incredibly dirty floor of the ER.

Normally I would have taken one in the locker room at work before I left to head back here, but because of my delightful collapse I hadn't been able to…

I let out a groan when I realize that I must have forgotten my bag in my locker. The odds…

"Looking for something?" I hear a smug voice call out, I turn around to see Tamsin looking at me as she leaned against the doorway to my room a small smirk on her face as she dangled a familiar black backpack in front of me.

"Thank-you." I mumble as I walk over to grab my bag.

I could see the look on her face soften ever so slightly as she reached out and handed me my bag lightly, smiling a little bit in appreciation I walk over and place my bag on the hook against the wall that had been it's place for as long as I had lived here.

"Thank-you Tamsin." I say again as I glance back over at her. "For everything. I know waking up in the middle of the night to come and get me is probably not your idea of fun, especially after you've had to work all day."

I could see her shrug slightly before she smirked at me a little. "Consider it pay back for all the times you hauled my drunk ass out of bars when we were younger."

"Will do." I say shaking my head slightly as the memories of all the times I'd had to haul Tamsin's incredibly drunk self out of bars.

"And about the defibrillator. Did you seriously use it today? Because it was Tuesday when you went to work. I thought Tuesday was Broken Bones Day."

"Really!" I can't help the laughter that escapes me as I respond to her question. I am never going to understand that women's obsession with a defibrillator. "It normally is."

Tuesday for as long as I've worked at the hospital has always been the day that we see the most broken bones, usually broken ankles and wrists. I don't know why, but according to Francis, who has worked at the hospital for easily thirty years, it has been going on for that long.

Apparently people like to work with ladders on Tuesday's for some reason.

All I know is that it usually means a long boring day of stitches and x-rays.

The orthopedics people are usually happy though because it means some surgery for them.

I have to shake my head slightly at the thought but that is quickly shut down when I feel something being shoved in my mouth followed by a glass of water being pressed to my lips.

Without even thinking I begin to swallow so that I don't choke on the infernal thing that Tamsin shoved into my mouth. Quickly I take a few gulps of water in order to make sure that whatever she shoved into my mouth goes down. I could see her looking at me, a small smirk on her face.

"What the hell Tamsin!" I shout out at my best friend as I begin to cough after I finally swallow whatever it was that she shoved into my mouth.

"Antibiotics." Was the only response I got.

I stretched out my hand expecting Tamsin to hand me the bottle that contained my antibiotics without any further fights. I could see her hesitate for a few moments before I heard her sigh, green eyes flickering down towards the floor before she walked over to my bag and opened one of the smaller zipper pouches on the side.

I could see her pull out the familiar orange plastic of a prescription bottle. Without saying anything I saw her walk back towards me, a hand offering the bottle in some sort of peace offering.

Quickly snatching it out of her hand I only need to scan the label to realize that they had given me a broad-spectrum antibiotic.

"How long was I on the ground for?" I sigh as I look up at Tamsin, walking over to place the bottle on my nightstand after I scan the instructions again.

Take once every 6 hours without food, which meant I couldn't eat for an hour before or two hours afterward.

Yeah.

How long was I on the ground for to give me prophylactic antibiotics?

"They said you were laying on the ground for a good ten minutes before they could get you off of it and onto a stretcher." I can't help the groan that escapes me in embarrassment at my actions.

I must have looked so incredibly stupid in front of Bo!

Oh god.

I let out another groan and walk over to my bed, burying my face in my palms. I had embarrassed myself in front of my colleagues and my patient, although I couldn't really help my reaction to the pain, but still…

"If it makes you feel any better they seemed more worried about you than laughing at you."

"You don't know Jackie and Francine, they're gossip mongers. It'll have spread all over the hospital before the end of tomorrow."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"And I passed out in front of Bo."

"You're worried because you also passed out in front of a patient?"

"She was the woman who's wrist I was tracing."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"We seem to be saying that a lot this morning."

"Go away Tamsin," I mumble as I reach over to grab one of the pillows from my bed to throw at her.

The only response I got was laughter was she dodged the pillow without even a second thought. I couldn't help but glance up at her and smile slightly despite myself, what else should I have expected from a trained police officer?

And with that thought I also began to laugh at the sheer absurdity of all of this, at the entire series of events that had transpired in the last six hours. It felt good to laugh right now, especially after the air that had haunted us earlier in the car.

For a little while we just stayed like that, Tamsin standing in the middle of my room laughing at me for my horrible attempts to throw pillows at her, and me laughing because I simply needed the release.

Slowly we began to calm down, I could feel the bed shifting as Tamsin sat down next to me, panting slightly in an attempt to get air back into her lungs. I could feel her slump against me a few moments later, and I leaned back into her in return.

It felt nice to be like this again, it had been a long time since we had just sat down and laughed. A very long time ago, probably since before Katherine, and most certainly before everything had gone south in our relationship.

I don't really know how long we simply sat there leaning against one and another, just enjoying the silence between us for a little while. I could feel my eyes getting heavier as my body's desire for sleep began to overwhelm me, but I tried to fight against it for a little while longer, to simply enjoy the time I have with my friend. So we just sat there, and eventually I feel backwards onto the mattress below me as I slowly began to lose the fight with my exhaustion.

"Is it one of your school days tomorrow?" I heard Tamsin murmur as I felt the weight on the mattress shift again. I could feel hands come to rest on my lower legs for a few seconds before I felt Tamsin lift them upwards and shift me so that I was lying across the bed.

"No…" I muttered before another yawn escaped and I allowed my eyes to drift shut as sleep began to overtake me. "You know how learning works after call duty."

"Yeah. Yeah. I'll be quiet when I have to get up again in… an hour." I heard Tamsin sigh before she sat back down on the bed. "Scoot, Scrubs."

"Why?" I mumbled sleepily.

"Because my bed is to far away. And it contains a certain someone who will be extremely grumpy if awoken at this time of night."

A certain…

No…

I blinked open my eyes as a sleepy grin slipped onto my face. "So Ciara spent the night again eh?"

"Are you just going to ask her to move in?" I continue with laughter in my voice. "She's over pretty much every night anyways, even contributes to the bills."

I could hear a small amount of sputtering followed by a small huffing sound and a knee being pressed into by back.

Tamsin really did not like it when I brought up her and Ciara, despite the fact that they had been together for several _years_, she practically lived with us, and was one of precisely three people who could tolerate Tamsin on a daily basis, the stubborn woman still refused to do anything about it.

But then again so did Ciara.

I don't think I'm ever going to really understand that relationship.

"Shut up and move over, Hank."

I laugh a little at the mention of that old nickname.

"Was it the corpse who was named Hank or the guy?" I mumble as I roll over onto the other side of the bed.

"I still don't know and right now I doubt you remember. Now shut up and let me sleep, You're not the one who has to get up in 56 minutes."

I mutter a little more as I shift over slightly more to give Tamsin the room she needs to get into bed properly.

"We really need to stop hopping in bed with each other." I murmur as I turn onto my side and curl up a little. I still needed to take a shower I noted when I felt my scrubs against my skin, but it could wait until I got a little more sleep.

"You make it sound like we sleep together every night."

"We do, or we did before I started working at the hospital."

"It was before Katherine actually, before you started dating her was the last time that we did this." I heard Tamsin murmur.

I was about to open my mouth and respond that it couldn't have been that long, but just as I was about to speak I realized that it had been. It really had been that long since she had come into my life during my third year of medical school, since we had started dated during my final year, since she had run off on me without even having the decency to end it properly during my second year of residency.

"I'm sorry."

"Laur," I heard Tamsin mumble, her voice thick with drowsiness. "Stop apologizing. It was a long time ago and it wasn't your fault."

"But what if it happens again?" I mumble as I glance down at the white gauze pad and the white tape that held it in place over my wrist. "What if this all ends up backfiring on me? What if she isn't the one and I get left again when she does find the person?"

"Then we help you pick up the pieces again. You know we're here for you whenever you need us." I heard Tamsin mumble as I felt an arm cross over my waist, holding me lightly. "But seriously you have a mark burned into your wrist, what do you think is going to happen?"

"I find her and then… I don't know?" I shrug, waking up a little more then I would like. "I guess we try and see if things work? For all I know this could be a completely asexual bond."

"Did she seem ace to you?"

"No."

"Then stop worrying about it. Stop planning scenarios in your head, Scrubs. We need to find her before we can do anything about her, or am I wrong about that?"

I grumbled as I shifted back into Tamsin a little more enjoying the feeling of a warm body next to mine for a little while. I could feel the arm around my waist squeeze it one more time before the weight was withdrawn and I felt the bed next to me shift as Tamsin turned over. I could feel her back come to press against mine, a content murmur escaping from her mouth.

I couldn't help the yawn that escaped from me in turn. Allowing my eyes to close I reached behind me and pulled a pillow from further up the bed and turned onto my stomach.

I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if instead of Tamsin next to me it was Bo. If the weight on the other side of the bed and the warmth of the other person belonged to her, the woman I had only met once in passing, as opposed to my best friend.

It was strange to even be thinking that way, for me to be longing for a person I only just met.

But maybe this was that strange pull that everyone always talked about?

The one that told you that you had met your soulmate.

I couldn't help but snort in amusement at my own thoughts. The sheer absurdity of the idea was staggering. I sounded like the message that Katherine had left me printed on a piece of the notepaper we had used to leave each other messages. I guess I should consider myself lucky at least she'd had the decency to leave me a handwritten note instead of an e-mail.

Sighing I force myself to burrow further into my pillow and expel Katherine from my thoughts.

There was little point in ruminating over her, and what had happened between us so long ago.

Reaching over I was about to turn the beside lamp off when I hesitated for a moment when I caught a glance at the bandage that was covering my wrist.

Was this the start of a new life or simply the beginning of a painful and fruitless search? Shaking my head I forced myself to reach over and turn the lights off, plunging my room into darkness.

I yawned as I curled back up with my pillow, allowing the warmth from Tamsin's body and the comfort that my bed provided to let me drift off.

* * *

That same little ball of light appeared in front of me again.

I could see it bouncing up and down before it quickly zoomed over and began to circle me again. I smiled lightly as I allowed it to continue to zoom around me, whatever this little thing was it was always excited to see me.

That was something at least.

"Hi," I whisper as I reach out and try to catch it, almost as if I'm afraid that I'll startle the little ball of light.

I can see it stop in front of my eyes for a few seconds before it zoomed out and away from me a little ways quickly coming back and bopping me on the nose again, and once again I smack myself on the forehead in turn. "Is this your way of saying hello or your way of saying you want me to play with you?"

Once again the little ball comes forward and smacked me this time between the eyes before it zoomed away a little ways, shaking once again as if it was laughing at me once again. This was all a repeat of what had happened to me hours earlier, the first time this little ball of light had come to visit me.

"Are you trying to get me to play tag with you?" I could see the little ball of light move side to side, almost as if it was mimicking the head shake that symbolized "no". "What do you want then?"

I could see it move up and down again before it took off into the darkness that surrounded me.

Without even thinking I began to take of after it, running at the highest speed I could muster. But each time I got closer, each time I thought I would catch up to that funny little ball it zoomed further away and escaped my reach once again. Earlier I had found this funny because it had seemed as if it was trying to play tag with me.

But now it seemed as if it was trying to lead me somewhere.

But the only question was where was it going?

I continued to run after it, the only light in all of the darkness that surrounded me. But the only thing I could do was continue to follow it, something pushing me to follow the light. I could feel something beginning to burn, that same pain that I had felt just before I had collapsed in the hospital.

I almost dreaded what would happen next, the burning turning into the cutting, those thousand tiny knives coming to visit me once again. And a few moments later I was proven right when that incredible pain began to spread through my body.

I could feel my legs collapse out from under me as the pain began to rebound through my body, taking the breath from me when I hit the ground. I could feel the world around me spinning, the darkness all blurring together into a swirling mass. I could feel the knives once again at work, splitting my skin open, forcing it open, and exposing it to the stagnant air of this place.

I moved my good hand to try and grip my wrist, to offer some kind of pressure, to try and stop my skin from splitting open once again.

But I could only scream when my hand came into contact with my marked wrist.

Forcing my eyes open for a brief moment I cursed as a wave of dizziness and nausea overcame me.

For the briefest of moments before my eyes closed I could have sworn that I caught sight of that mischievous and mysterious little ball of light. But I could only close my eyes in an attempt to fight the dizziness and the spinning world that surrounded me.

"Lauren…" I heard a voice whisper, one that was simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar to me.

"Tamsin," I try to choke out but then it hits me that it couldn't possibly have been Tamsin, this voice had a different timbre, it was a little lighter yet it was deeper at the same time.

I could feel that same warmth touch on my shoulder, and that same touch that was paradoxically painful and warm in a way that did not exacerbate the pain.

"Bo…" I choke out.

"Dennis," I heard her say.

"Whaa..?" I let out a mumble as I force myself to open my eyes, I could see a blurry shape, a blob of brown that I could only vaguely recognize.

"Bo Dennis." A complete the name. I could almost here the smile in her voice as a hand came to rest on my back. I wince and try to curl up and away from it for the pain that it causes me to be touched.

"Lauren!" I hear a voice calling me in the distance, and as much as I would like to respond, as hard as I try to, the only thing I can do is curl further into myself as the pain once again overwhelms me.

The racket that the person, or perhaps _people _calling my name was causing, and the headache it was giving me was far to much when combined with the pain from my wrist. I could feel the burning once again, the fire trying to burn it's way out through my skin.

Why was I in so much pain again?

I had never heard of this happening, of anything like this happening before. I could feel the thing that was resting on my back moving slightly up and down, and all I could do in turn was scream. Every never in my body was on fire, everything hurt in a way that should be impossible.

The knives were back once again, carving away at my skin, slowly opening the wounds deeper and deeper.

Had the entire pattern not filled in when I had gone through this torturous experience the first time around?

With a shock of pain and burning and an internalized sense of horror I realized that it hadn't, that only the black bars that represented the boarder had filled in.

I forced myself to try and take a breath and calm down. I needed to breath because if I didn't I would pass out here, in whatever this place was.

But when I tried to breath the only thing that could escape was a cough.

"Lauren!" I hear the voice call out again, and somehow through the haze of pain I force myself to turn in the direction the sound came from. It was strange, I felt like I was being tugged in two different directions. One telling me to stay here and to stay in this world, and the other pulling me backward.

"Lauren," I hear a firm voice call my name again as another surge of pain overcomes me, causing me to clench my eyes shut and for another scream to escape, or at least I think another one escaped.

* * *

I could feel a strong grip on my wrist and hear a vague shout in the distance, well perhaps up close but I could not make out the words that were being spoken. I wanted to tell the person who was holding my wrist to let go of it, that they were only causing the pain to become worse.

But when I tried to open my eyes or to move my lips the only ting that could escape was a scream as another wave of pain overcame me, as the burning fire trying to escape from me continued unabated. The only thing I could feel was the pressure around my wrist increase as the pressure from within my wrist also increased.

"The gauze you asked for, darling. How is she?" I could hear a lightly accented voice call out softly as my hearing began to return slowly.

"I don't know. I can't… can you go get some ice? We need to find a way to stop this bleeding."

"Will applying ice to the wound truly help?"

"Who knows? I'm not Lauren, I'm not a doctor, and it's been awhile since first-aide training."

Were they seriously considering applying ice to my presumably bleeding wrist? I could feel the pain spike again, causing me to clench my teeth and my muscles to tense up.

But it subsided only a few moments later, the heat failing to follow it this time, and I couldn't help but smile a little on the inside at the feeling of the pain having vanished once again.

Slowly I try to move, trying to turn slightly, only to feel an arm come and wrap around my waist, holding me in place.

"Is she awake?"

"I doubt it. She was shifting earlier, she does this all the time while she's asleep, can never stay in place for long periods of time."

"You would know would you not?"

"Ciara…"

"I know."

I almost groaned. I'd heard this argument before between them, Ciara well and truly could be jealous, scarily so, when she wanted to be.

Slowly I tried to move again, kicking my leg lightly. I could feel it move a little bit and felt a surge of joy in response.

Slowly I blink open my eyes, or at least try, as I have to close them again a few moments later because of the bright light that is coming from the lamp nearby.

"You awake, Lauren?" I hear Tamsin call out. Slowly I nod my head before I blink open my eyes again.

I could see an exhausted pair of green eyes staring back into my own, worry and nervousness reflecting clearly within them.

"Bo Dennis." I whisper, my voice barely above a croak as my eyes slid closed once again.

"What?"

"Her name is Bo Dennis." I could hear a small chuckle before I felt Tamsin's hand manipulating my wrist.

"I'm going to remove the pressure for a second and I want you to open your eyes okay?"

I nod in response and force my eyes open for a brief second, catching a glimpse of the final mark.

It was still red, raw and bleeding in most places but the patterns were unmistakable.

It looked like Bo's, and although only a computer scan would be able to tell us if we were well and truly the bearers of the other half of the person's mark this was a strong indicator that she was indeed my soulmate because the marks had long ago gotten far too complex for the human eye to distinguish.

And at least I had another piece of information on her.

A last name.

Dennis…

It was a start at least.

* * *

**A/N: Thank-you so much for taking the time to read this as well as the reviews that everyone has left, they are always welcome and appreciated as well as constructive criticism and ways by which to improve. Thank-you as well for the favourites and the follows. Special thank-you to Echo Galen for Betaing this.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

"Lauren?" I heard Tamsin call out, breaking my train of thought. "I'm going to put the pressure back on your wrist okay?"

Nodding slightly, I allowed my eyes to drift closed a small smile slipping onto my face. I could feel the heavy pressure of Tamsin's grip return to my wrist, muffled only slightly by the layers of blood soaked gauze that covered my wrist.

"Welcome back Lauren." I hear Ciara's lilting voice call out softly, her words more heavily accented then usual to my tired ears. Blinking open my eyes once again, squinting slightly at the harshness of the light, I can see Ciara leaning against the door-frame to my bedroom, a small bowl in her hand.

It must be the ice that they had been talking about earlier.

Turning my eyes towards Tamsin I can see the exhausted look in her eyes, the bags underneath them heavy from her lack of sleep.

My fault.

"Tamsin...?" I trail off reaching over to try and tap her on the shoulder. I would be more then capable of applying the pressure that was needed to stop the bleeding by now, in theory at least. But before I can touch her I can see Ciara shaking her head at me as she walks over to the side of my bed where Tamsin was kneeling on the ground.

"How many gauze pads has this been darling?" I can hear Ciara murmur as she leans down to press a kiss to Tamsin's cheek, a hand coming to rest on her shoulder, massaging it lightly.

I could see Tamsin shrug slightly her eyes darting up towards Ciara before they return to my wrist, staring at it in intense concentration. " I don't know, ten maybe? Don't forget about the blood on the floor, and on the pad underneath her arm. It's a lot," I hear Tamsin mutter as she turns around to press a kiss to Ciara's cheek. "And on top of the blood she lost last night at the hospital."

I could see her gaze move towards the small bowl resting on my nightstand before it darted back towards Ciara. "Thanks babe." A quick press of lips together, I let out a small chuckle, I would shake my head if I could. It was amazing to watch them together sometimes, how they can go from jealous and bickering one minute to sickeningly sweet the next.

"You two can be sickening you know that right?"

"You and Kath-" I can feel Tamsin's grip on my wrist tighten slightly as she turned her head backward towards Ciara.

"What the hell Tamsin!" I cry out as my fingers begin to tingle, the circulation on my wrist nearly cut off by the pressure that she was applying in her tense grip.

"Sorry. So scrubs? Did the mark match at all?"

"That's why her wrist started to bleed?"

Allowing my eyes to drift shut again I smile at the memory of Bo appearing in my dream. "It does. From what I remember about it." Although given that I had only seen the mark hours ago, it was impossible to forget. The lines and curves, the waves and the branches of the mark, those strange few lines.

The mark I had seen had been so similar, it had been red and raw, oozing blood from most of the lines, large and small, but the patterns had been unmistakably similar, if not identical. But overtime they had gotten so complex, so hard to tell apart, it normally took computer scans to tell them apart these days.

I could hear a small squeal as I felt thin arms wrap around my body, a heavy weight pressing down on my upper body. With my good hand I reached up to pat Ciara lightly on the shoulder, grimacing slightly as I moved my sore and aching body. I could hear a light chuckle coming from the persons who was holding my bleeding wrist.

Grumbling I tried to turn my head towards her to send her a glare only to be blocked by a head coming to rest next to mine.

"Congratulations!" I hear Ciara whisper into my ear. "She's a lucky woman."

I smile and chuckle as I reach up to pat Ciara on the back again, trying to lift myself up off the bed slightly only to see the world begin to spin around me, the white ceiling and stucco of my room turning into a swirling mass. All I can do is let out a groan as my head falls back onto the pillow that had been supporting it to this point.

"Ciara?" I mumble, as I reach up to tap her lightly on the shoulder. "Could you get me some orange juice or something?"

"Dizzy?"

"Yeah."

"Not really shocking, I think you donated a good pint to the floor before they could stop you from bleeding out. I think the nurses hated you because you bleed through so many of your dressings, as soon as they changed one you would bleed through it."

I blink open one of my eyes and smile slightly. "You sure it wasn't your sunny presence?"

"I'm fairly sure that it was the constantly changing bandages."

I stuck my tongue out at Tamsin a little bit before I reached over and grabbed the pillow that she had been using and trying to whack her on the head with it. The only problem was I forgot Ciara was still lying on top of me, resulting in Ciara getting a mouthful of pillow instead.

"Lauren…" I hear Ciara growl out slowly.

I can't help but gulp slightly before I reach out and try to grab Tamsin by the shoulder, hoping that I could use her as a human shield to deflect the wrath of Ciara.

She hated it when her hair got messed with.

Especially before she'd had her morning coffee.

"Don't go dragging me into this Scrubs. I still have to staunch the bleeding." I hear Tamsin pause as she shifts her fingers ever so slightly. "Babe can you hand me another gauze pad please?"

I can feel Ciara shifting on top of me, squishing me further into the bed. "Ciara!" I try to cry out in protest.

"Oh hush you can stand more then this." How exactly does she know that? I was about to open my mouth and ask before I realized that I probably did not want to know, or to ever find out.

I could feel her continue to wiggle on top of me as she shifted over my body before I see one of her arm cross my field of vision. "Here you are darling."

"Thanks." I hear Tamsin mutter as the pressure on my wrist is momentarily relieved before it returns, stronger then before.

"So which is it? Bleed out or put up with the wrath of Ciara?"

"Wrath of Ciara." I mutter without a second thought. Between my life and being tortured in some way by Ciara, I have to go with Ciara.

Even if this does mean that I have to spend my day off shopping with her.

I couldn't help but shudder slightly at the idea of having to spend the entire day shopping with Ciara, but honestly it could have been worse. At least she wasn't going to do anything worse then that.

Maybe.

I couldn't help but shudder slightly at the memory of the last time I had angered Ciara.

That had not been a very pretty situation to begin with, and an angry Ciara?

That became a new kind of hell on Earth.

"You're punishment is to rest here for the rest of the day darling." I can hear Tamsin chuckle at my expense, and soon after I can feel Ciara beginning to shake on top of me.

Pretty soon I'm starting to laugh as well.

This entire situation had gone from serious to completely ridiculous in a matter of minutes. I couldn't help the smile that crossed my lips, the feeling of joy that I had nearly forgotten spreading through me.

Maybe this was all the start of something new? Maybe this was my chance to start over, and to put all the things that had happened in my past behind me finally. I could feel the yawn escape from me as I felt Ciara roll off of me and onto the bed next to me. A hand brushed across my forehead briefly before I felt lips being pressed there.

Opening my eyes slightly I could see green eyes staring into my own, full of emotions that I couldn't quite place. I yawned again as my eyes drifted closed, the blood loss and the exhaustion from my shift taking hold once again as I settled back down against my pillows.

I could feel something warm and soft being drape over me before a weight settled against the bed near my knees, my arm moving with that weight. On my other side was another weight, and an arm tossed lightly over my waist for good measure, the warmth from Ciara's body behind me radiating to me through the blanket.

This was a position that I was all to familiar with, although at least this time this isn't out of necessity, but rather out of support.

A small but fond smile crossed onto my face as I began to drift off once again.

Sometimes I'm amazed by how lucky I am, even if my family is small and makeshift, at least I have them here with me, no questions asked.

* * *

"Kat?" I call as I entered the apartment, my keys clinking lightly as I placed them in the small glass bowl on the small wooden table next to entranceway.

"Katherine?" I try again.

"Kat are you home?" I call out as I glance over at the corkboard that was hung up next to the entrance way, over the small table that held the key bowl and a few other knick-knacks. But when I looked over at the board all I could see was the note I had scrawled out before I had left for my shift early this morning.

_Baby, _

_I love you. I'll be home tonight. _

_-L. _

I could see the note that I had scrawled out onto our notepaper from the night before in the place that I had left it, pinned to the bulletin board next to the door.

There was no new note telling me that Katherine had gone out early, or left for any other reason. The board was full of the same notes it had always been, the "I love you"s, the dinner requests, grocery reminders, laundry reminders, who had called and left a message, when I would be home, whether I was on call or not.

Katherine's appointments.

Reminders for date nights from both me and her.

A note telling me that my hair looked like a monster had frightened me accompanied by a photo of me passed out on the couch. I couldn't help but laugh slightly at that one, it had been taken after I had been on call two nights in a row after swapping shifts with Larry so he could be with his little girl on her birthday. I hadn't exactly been able to shower during that time and by the time I had made it back here I had been so exhausted I couldn't even make it to bed. I smiled as I reached out to trace the picture, my eyes drifting along the small notes of love and promises to come contained in Katherine's handwriting.

But there was no new notes.

That was a little odd.

I glanced down at my watch again, fiddling with it lightly.

It said it was six. She should have been home by now, she was always home by now unless she had a late appointment.

But she always left a note if that was the case.

There were no new notes.

I could feel a small shiver travel down my spin as the worst beings to pop into my head. If she had gotten herself hurt, or had been attacked in some way and was passed out somewhere in one of the other rooms…

I forced myself to take a breath and try to think rationally.

The odds of that happening were incredibly low, it was more likely she was just waiting somewhere, maybe trying to surprise me, or maybe she was running late. I think I had heard that the traffic was bad coming in from the east-end today…

I should at least check and see if she's home.

"Kat?" I call again as I glance around the apartment, it was far to quiet… had I gotten the time wrong?

I step a little more into the apartment, reaching down to unlace and tug off my runner. I methodically completed the menial task as I strained my hearing trying to pick up anything would indicate that my girlfriend was home. But the only sound I could hear was my own breathing, and the beginnings of my heartbeat pounding in my ear.

I could feel a little bit of sweat breaking onto my palms causing me to fumble as I tried to undo the laces that held my shoes to my feet.

I really had no reason to be nervous, or scared. It wasn't as if I would walk into the living room and find her dead.

I just wasn't used to coming home to an empty apartment. Katherine was normally asleep by the time I got home from shift, or she was coming or going to work, I rarely came home to an empty apartment. But when I did there was always a reason for it… so why did I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach?

Why was I feeling so much dread?

Tentatively I stood up and toed off my shoes, shaking my head. What was I thinking? That she had just up and disappeared?

That wasn't Katherine, that wasn't her at all.

I'm sure that there's a perfectly logical explanation for all of this.

"She wouldn't just up and leave me, she's not that type of person Lauren, you know that…" I mumble to myself.

So then why did I feel so much dread in the pit of my stomach as I took the few steps that were necessary to cross into the living room?

As I glanced around the room everything seemed familiar, the soft brown sofa was up against one of the beige painted walls, the flat-screen TV mounted on the other and the glass coffee table between them, died a hazy orange in the evening sun.

The end tables on either side of the couch that held the table lamps, that would soon need to be turned on as the sun faded into the earth. The stakes of medical and psychology journals that rested on those tables, piled precariously in some places ready to tip onto the floor, a few already spilled onto the ground.

There was also dark wooden bookshelf full of movies and TV shows that sat on the wall just to the left of the TV, the one portion of it resting against the floor to ceiling windows half obscured by curtains that were blocking out the light of the evening sun as it filtered in lazily.

It was a familiar scene that made me smile. I had spent so many nights out here, curled up with Katherine on the couch as we watched TV, or as we worked/studied. A few times we had simply fallen asleep out here in our exhaustion from our respective days. A few times we had just sat in here and watched the sun set from under a blanket on the couch, her resting against the arm and me resting against her.

My feet made soft thudding sounds as I walked across the small, but cozy living room in the place that I called home, and would hopefully soon _be_ my home. As I walked softly across the hardwood flooring I bent down to pick up the journals that had slipped off the side table, the silence of the apartment slowly beginning to overwhelm me despite all the good memories I had of this room.

I forced myself to take another breath as I stood up, gently placing the journals back onto the messy stacks.

I really needed to talk to Katherine about cleaning up a little bit, glancing over at the wall before I looked back at the piles of journals littering the side tables.

We needed to get new bookshelves for the journals…

Maybe next to the TV…

I would have to leave Katherine a note about it in case she didn't come home tonight.

Or maybe I would be able to talk to her about it during our anniversary…

I smiled a little bit at what I had started to plan.

It was a little over two weeks away and I was already starting to plan out what Katherine and I could do with the day.

Larry had already agreed to cover my shift as a favour to me for doing his the next time his daughter was ill or had a school event.

I smiled at the thought as I walked over towards the door to our bedroom.

It had been so long since I had taken the day off, and it had been even longer since we'd had a proper date.

Three years was a long time, far longer then any of her previous relationships had lasted, and six times longer then my last and longest one.

So it deserved to be celebrated and honestly we needed to time to reconnect and just talk face to face.

Reaching out I knocked lightly on the door, mildly surprised to find that it was closed, Katherine rarely…

I could feel that chill in my spin magnify and the small ball of nervousness that had settled in the pit of my stomach expand exponentially. I forced myself to take a breath and knock again.

No response.

"Kat?" I call out lightly, trying desperately to keep my tone even.

"Katherine?" I call as I begin to debate whether to press my ear to the door to the bedroom or not. I could only begin to feel the dread what I could potentially find.

Would I hear the creaking of our bedsprings? Quiet moans that I wouldn't be able to tell were pain or pleasure?

Was I about to walk in on my girlfriend?

Had there been an extra pair of shoes at the door?

Was I just being paranoid? I had to just be paranoid.

Katherine was never the type to cheat. She despised cheaters, she actually asked me on our first date if I had ever cheated on any of my partners in the past.

She had promised, sworn up and down…

Forcing myself to take another breath I turned my head and leaned forward, pressing my ear against the smooth wood of our white door.

For a moment I stood there, my ear pressed against the door feeling the dread overcome me, the nerves in my stomach turning into full blown nausea, and the grip I had on the doorknob become lose as my hands turned sweaty.

I gulped as I closed my eyes and forced myself to focus on the door, listening for any noise coming from the other side of it.

There was no sound.

I almost felt my knees buckle as I trembled slightly, relief washing over me.

Why was I being so paranoid?

More then likely Katherine had just closed the door as she left this morning by accident.

Maybe the neighbours cat had jumped in through the open balcony door again?

Reaching out I gently twisted the knob and pushed lightly, hearing the familiar light creaking of the hinges as the door opened to reveal our bedroom.

Without even looking around the room my eyes became drawn towards something that was lying on top of the beige bedspread.

Slowly I walked into the room, my footsteps echoing off the walls, and my breathing in my ears.

Both sounded far louder then they should have.

Was I just being paranoid?

I had to be. There was no reason to think that she wasn't just running late. That she wasn't just a little bit behind schedule or had an emergency with one of her clients.

But with each footstep, with each breath I drew in I could feel my heart beginning to pound in my chest, echoing in my ear just a little bit louder.

Swallowing as I reached the bed I reached out and grabbed the note.

It was written on the same paper that we had used to communicate for so long.

For a single brief moment I could feel everything that had been troubling me leave me as something that felt a little like happiness spread through me.

This was so like her, going so far out of her way to try and do this.

I almost smiled as I flipped the note over.

_Lauren, _

_I'm sorry. _

_-Katherine. _

I glanced down at the note, rereading it over and over again.

What on Earth?

Lauren…

She hasn't called me Lauren in a note since we started dating.

Sweetie, honey, babe, sometimes baby.

She had never used Lauren.

L a few times, but never my name.

And she always signed the notes K.

Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

I could only feel confusion as I continued to read the note over and over again.

I'm sorry.

What did that even mean?

I sighed as I glanced around something struck me as wrong.

The room felt… emptier then it should have.

I glanced over at Katherine's nightstand, and realized that it was bare accept for the lamp.

She normally kept a picture of her and her parents on it, and the one of her friends and her on the day of their graduation…

I could feel the panic that had left me, the nervousness; everything came back into full force all to quickly. I could feel my forehead and palms grow damp as I shivered, my heart beginning to pound in my ears.

Quickly I crossed the room and pulled open the doors to our closet, holding by breath reaching over to flick on the lights.

Her side was empty.

The metal bars, and the shelves above them that had once contained her clothing were empty.

The rack below that had held her shoe was barren, the white plastic staring back at me as if it were bone. The cold metal of the bars that had once held hangers full of her clothing were glinting in the light of the room.

I could feel myself beginning tremble in place, my hands shaking.

Without even thinking I took off running to the storage closet that sat next to the kitchen.

When I yanked it open the two suitcases that had been hers were gone, missing.

I ran over to the bookshelves that held her DVD's.

Her favourites were gone, the blank spaces staring back at me.

The ones that had been there for weeks I realized in horror as my memories began to fill in.

Glancing around I noticed how _devoid_ of Katherine the rooms were.

Sure everything was still there, but all of her favourites.

The pictures.

The nick-knacks.

All of it was gone.

I forced myself to take a breath as I ran back into our room.

That note.

That stupid note.

There was only one way to know for sure if she had…

I don't even want to think about it.

I ran over to through the door and around the bed, reaching out I yanked open the drawer to her nightstand.

If she had taken…

I rummaged around in the nightstand, or I would have if there had been anything to touch in it other then the smooth wooden surface of the inside.

The entire contents had been taken.

Her coins were missing.

That pin that she had kept since her university days.

Those bracelets she had bought when she was traveling through Europe.

The few pieces of jewelry that she had owned and stored in there.

But most importantly her mother's necklace and her father's wristwatch.

Both of them were gone.

I gulped as the tears welled up in my eyes, my body beginning to tremble at the realization of what was happening to me.

What had just _happened_, what Katherine had done.

I felt sick.

I felt like I was going to be sick.

I could feel the lump rise in my throat and the tears broke through.

Fumbling I reached into my pocket for my phone.

With shaking hands I typed in my password and unlocked it.

Quickly pressing down on the little phone app I brought up Tamsin's name and hit it, bringing the phone up to my ear.

I could hear it ringing, but there was not sign that anyone was gong to pick it up.

It kept ringing.

And as it rang the full weight of what was happening hit me.

"What ever reason you're calling, if it's important I'll get back to you. If not don't waste my time." I could hear the recording for Tamsin's voicemail come through.

"Tamsin?" Was all I could choke out before my voice cracked and the phone slip away from my ear as my grip on it loosened and a sob escaped me for the first time, followed by another one, and another one. I see feel my vision become clouded as I began to cry.

I could feel my legs buckling under me as I fell forward onto the bed. The faint smell of lavender and something that had just been _Katherine_ wafting into my nose.

Katherine had _left_.

She had just walked away from me and disappeared without a trace.

I brought my hands up to cover my eyes as I curled in on myself in bed.

I couldn't believe that this was happening.

She had promised me!

She promised me that she would never do this to me!

I never thought that she was this kind of person.

She had promised me that if she was doing to end it she would do it face to face!

She had promised…

* * *

Waking up I can feel my heart beating rapidly in my chest, my breathing shallow as I force myself to sit up in bed.

That dream felt all to real, or maybe it felt all to real because it was a memory.

One that I thought I had buried a long time ago.

I brought a hand up to my forehead fingers reaching up to run through my hair. I brought my knees close to my chest, resting my elbow on them lightly.

Why now of all times?

And why that particular memory?

Of all the ones that I thought I had buried and clocked, that was the one that I thought I had buried the deepest.

But apparently it hadn't been deep enough. But why had that memory surfaced now of all times?

As a dream of all things?

I had dreamed of seeing Katherine again, but I had never dreamed of that day. Not since the night Ciara brought me back here.

Was it because Bo had appeared? Because my mark had appeared?

Was this my subconscious' way of trying to warn me about something? To warn me against something?

I don't understand.

I just don't understand.

Pulling my hand back from my forehead I stared at the black marks that now covered my once unmarked wrist.

The black lines, the curves, the dips, and the swirls.

The ones that echoed the pattern that belonged on Bo's wrist, the one of a woman I had only met once in the real world, and possibly a second time as a hallucination in a dream. Or maybe that dream had been real.

I don't know anymore.

I don't know anything anymore.

I could only sigh at the memory of the inky blankness that covered Bo's wrist. It was so different from the few images I had in my head of my hand being intertwined with another person's whose mark had looked so different from Bo's.

Katherine's mark had been so different.

It had been one of the rare geometric ones.

All thick boxy lines, squares and rectangles. A very rare pattern, the one that now marked my wrist was one of the most common types.

I had thought that her's was beautiful. One of the prettiest I had ever seen.

But in the end that had been what destroyed us. Sighing I shake my head as I look around my room, bringing my hand up I wipe away the wetness that had gathered on my cheeks. The tears that must have escaped from my eyes as I relived that horrible memory as I slept.

Glancing over at the clock that occupied the bedside table I could see the faint glow of the red numbers.

10:00

In the end I had only gotten a few hours of sleep.

But at this point I don't think I'll be getting anymore sleep.

Other then that my room was in total darkness, the blackout curtains that Tamsin and I had picked out together so long ago hanging over the windows, blocking the sunlight from my room.

I couldn't help but laugh a little bit at the memory of trying to pick out those curtains with Tamsin.

Between the two of us it had taken nearly an hour to even find the stupid blackout curtains. Every other place that we had been was sold out when we went to get them, apparently it was first year resident buying season as well as the more gung-ho med student.

We had finally ended up in this strange place that specialized in novelty curtains. The only place in the entire city that hadn't been sold out, but of course the owner had no idea where they were.

Actually I'm fairly sure that he was high at the time.

We had found them between the daffodil print curtains and the ones that were a shade of pink that would make Pepto-Bismol jealous. I couldn't help but laugh at the memory of the look of horror on Tamsin's face as she'd had to handle the "bright pink monstrosity."

Of course I'd never had much use for them because shortly after we had put them up, an adventure in of itself, I had begun to sleep at Katherine's on a more regular basis.

Sighing and shaking my head I forced myself to remove the blanket from my legs and stand up, yawning slightly as I did so.

Glancing over at the clock I sighed when I realized what time it was.

I needed to take another round of those stupid antibiotics.

Blegh.

Reaching over to my bedside lamp I quickly move my fingers to the slide and press the little rod through the knob.

Now where had Tamsin put that little… oh right she had handed it over to me.

So where had I put that little orange bottle of fungus derivative?

"Ahah." I shout when I spot it a few steps away, lying on the ground halfway between my backpack and my bed.

I must have dropped it last night when I tossed the pillow at Tamsin's head.

Reaching down I caught sight of the bandage job on my wrist for the first time. The cotton and tape monstrosity was dotted with small specks of blood over the tap, telling me that Tamsin had handled it with her bloody drying hands.

How exactly had I not noticed this monstrosity before? It was huge!

But apparently necessary I noticed when I caught sight of one of the untapped portions of the side.

The first layers were bright red, and the next few were pink with blood.

Shaking my head I reach down, muttering. "Tamsin certainly is not a doctor or a nurse or even a med student."

The bandage job looked exactly like a first responder would do it. Staunch the bleeding first, functionality second, aesthetics and patient comfort last.

It was about five layers of gauze too thick to be comfortable.

Sighing I reached down and grabbed the bottle of antibiotics before I stood up and began to make my way towards the kitchen to grab a glass of water to help me swallow these things.

As I reached out to open the door another thought absently struck me.

When I took these I wouldn't be able to eat for another hour after this.

I could already feel my stomach growling in protest, angry that it hadn't been fed since yesterday.

Muttering to myself I reached out to pull open the door to my bedroom. Peeking my head out I called out, "Tamsin? Ciara? Are you guys here?"

Normally I wouldn't even ask them this question, they both worked at this time of day, having much more regular work schedules then mine ever will be. But still, I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed when I didn't hear anybody call out in response.

But what else should I have expected? Them to be home?

"Well I'm certainly feeling needy this morning aren't I?" I grumble to myself as I reach into the cupboard for a glass.

I could feel my eyes drifting towards the fridge in longing as my stomach growled once again.

Maybe I…

No.

I force myself to look back at the little orange pill bottle in front of me, and the clear glass sitting next to it on our particle board countertop.

Reaching over I grabbed the glass and walked the three steps necessary in order to reach the sink, reaching out and turning on the tap.

Bo…

The name drifted through my mind almost of it's own accord.

What did I really know about this woman other then her name?

Well based upon the brief interaction during which we exchanged precisely three sentences I can say for sure that she is incredibly beautiful and seems to be incredibly at ease with herself. There is also this magnetism to her, this way about her that simply seems to demand the attention f the people around her.

I snort slightly in laughter at my own thoughts. I already sounded hopelessly gone, even just beginning to talk about her.

Although was it so crazy to think that I may already be a little bit gone?

Hmm…

Ice would be good was the thought that drifted through my mind as I reached out to turn off the tap.

Ice floating in water.

Eyeballs.

I can't help but burst out laughing at the word that suddenly drifted through my mind. Where did that even come from?

Shaking my head, I can't help but smile that word reminding me of the exchange I had with Bo.

And I can't help but realize how lame the joke that I made was.

"Sew your eyeball to your forehead? Really." I can't help but sigh as I set the glass down, reaching over to pop open lid to the pill bottle.

And now I'm sounding like a teenager who is worried about whether her crush likes her or not.

"Press and twist or twist and press?" I mutter to myself as I fiddle with the bottle to try and open it.

Glancing around the room I continue to fiddle with the pill bottle hoping that muscle memory will take over and I will magically open the pill bottle. I spot the shinny metal and glass of the desk that Ciara brought here at some point over the last year.

And I can't help but desire to allow my forehead to meet the nearest solid surface.

The Internet.

Of course.

If you want to try and find someone that is probably the best place in existence to begin a search.

Glancing over at the clock I note the time 10:10.

I have an hour before I can eat and what better way to try and fill the time then to begin the search for my disappearing soulmate?

A small popping sound reaches my ears as I look down to find the pill bottle had opened itself up magically.

Maybe things were beginning to go my way after all. Despite the 12 layers of gauze taped to my right wrist and the fact that I'm taking antibiotics, and have to search for the woman who is most likely my soulmate via the wonders that is modern technology.

My stomach growls again.

And the fact that I have not eaten in, I glance at the clock again, nearly 14 hours.

I shrug a little as I tap one of the pills out, popping it into my mouth and chasing with water.

At least I have a place to start in my search.

* * *

My hand slams down on the comforter of the bed next to me as yet another search fails to turn up _anything!_

I had tried Canada 411.

No luck. There had not been anyone listed under the name Bo Dennis in the entire town, and the closest person with that name lived over a thousand kilometres away.

And he had been a man.

That had been an awkward phone-call.

Especially since he was already with his soulmate, computer matched and everything, and married to his partner of twenty years.

I don't remember Bo being a man.

I'm fairly sure that Bo is a local given that she came to the ER because she tripped over her roommate's shoes.

I would never even think to bring my old roommates on trips with me.

Argh… I sigh as I shake my head once again.

Yellow pages.

Nope, nada.

General internet? Nothing.

Not even a Facebook page, or at least not one that I could find.

No twitter either, I had searched for everything from Bo Dennis to B.D. But there had been nothing on there.

I had even gone back and checked MySpace! But there was no sign of any of those, I had even gone over to some of the older social networking sites that I'd had to stretch my brain to even begin to remember.

Honestly I'm surprised that half of these sites are still up. I thought some of them had shut down years ago. But nope, there web pages still exist, although going back I've found navigating them far harder then I remember it being.

Maybe I'm just old.

Actually I feel old right now.

I had actually resorted to combing through the newspaper archives. I had ended up back in the 90's, but all I could find was the image of an old woman. It had been labelled Ysabeau McCorrigan, and she hadn't really looked at all like Bo.

Well she sort of had, but I couldn't find her obituary to see if a granddaughter was mentioned. Just the picture and the caption. And the last time I checked Bo was about my age, maybe a few years older, not a dead old woman.

I snorted, that would be even more tragedy in my life, and it would be like yet another element of a TV show. My mark would have come in grey if she had been dead, and when I glanced down and lifted the gauze to the side I could still see the inky blackness staring back at me.

I sighed as I shook my head.

Glancing over at the screen I sighed as my eyes scanned through the lists of articles that I had pulled up in desperation, I had literally ended up turning to Google Scholar to see if she might have published any papers. But the only thing I could find even close to that name was Ysabeau Dennis, which I doubt is her.

The paper that I could access did not strike me as being written by a woman who had come through the ER at my workplace because she had tripped over her roommate's shoe and banged her head into the coffee table. This was published in a fairly reputable psych journal, and although it was the thesis of someone pursing their master's degree it was incredibly well written and research, a unique topic as well.

Soulmate Marks and Partner Selection.

Boring title, interesting material.

I sighed as I clicked the back arrow, pulling me back into the infinite list of papers that I had pulled up in my desperate search.

Where was I even supposed to begin to look for her?

Why did I feel this driving need to find her?

To simply prove to myself that she existed?

I sighed as I allowed my upper body to fall backward onto the bed, my head making a dull thump as it hit the pillow behind me, the zipper of my hoodie protesting as it was jostled again. Reaching over I closed the lid to the computer and sighed, allowing my eyes to drift shut.

Maybe if I could take a nap I would be able to clear my head a little bit and actually come up with an idea.

Hmmm…

That sounded good actually. I yawned slightly as I curled up into myself a little bit, enjoying the feeling of wearing pyjamas for the first time in days. I could feel the dampness of my hair clinging to my skull but at the moment I couldn't care less about that surrounded me.

All I really wanted to do was sleep for a little while, maybe Tamsin would have some idea of what to do when she got back from work. Maybe I could get her to search the name?

Or maybe if I dreamed about her and that strange little ball of light again. Maybe I could ask her for her address this time, or maybe even her phone number. At this point I would settle for longitude and latitude.

Or maybe I'll dream about meeting her again and finally find out what that stupid OHIP number was that I know was on the form but I can't seem to remember to save my life.

I yawned as I curled up slightly, pulling my knees towards my chest. Reaching over I pulled the blanket over me and closed my eyes, snuggling into the warm comfort of the soft fabric.

But just as I was about to drift off to sleep something interrupted my slow descent into sleep.

"You've got to be kidding me." I muttered as I pulled the blanket over my head a groan escaping, was it to much to ask to let me get some sleep after the night and day that I'd had?

Another round of the same incessant and annoying ringing coming from the phone in the kitchen, the automated voice calling out a number that I didn't recognize.

_The ringing of the stupid telephone was keeping me awake. _

I was so tempted to ignore it, if the call was important they could leave a message or call back later when Tamsin and Ciara were home. I was supposed to be resting!

But as it went through another round of ringing and another read through of the number I reached over and pulled the blanket off of me. Shivering slightly from the sudden change in temperature I sigh as I force myself to sit up and stand in rapid succession before I dash into the kitchen.

I quickly spot the phone resting on the breakfast counter out of it's cradle, the grey and black cordless phone ringing like there is no tomorrow, the voice practically shouting out the number I had heard three times already. Taking a breath and forcing the annoyed feelings to the side I reach out and grab the phone, quickly pressing the talk button and pressing the phone to my ear.

"Hello?" I say, trying to keep my voice neutral. The caller doesn't need to know that I'm annoyed with them.

Yet.

"Dr. Lewis?" I hear a tentative voice on the other end call out. It sounds familiar, but at the same time it's distorted through the phone line.

"Speaking."

"Uhh… I don't really know how to put this, but I think we've met before?" I sigh as I shake my head.

"Can I ask who is calling me?"

"You are Dr. Lewis correct? Dr. Lauren Lewis?"

Her voice saying my name is all I need to realize who exactly is on the other end of this conversation. There is a familiarity to the way she speaks my name that is far more comforting then it should ever be.

"Bo?" Is all I can breath out, suddenly I feel my knees go weak as I stumble my way towards the couch, cradling the phone in both my hands as feelings of disbelief washed over me. How was it possible that it was her? That this almighty search that I should have had to undertake is ended with a single phonecall?

"Lauren." Her voice sounds breathy on the other end, and I can feel myself getting a little warm at the thought that I could do that by only saying her name. What would I be able to do to her if I could see her in person?

What would she do to me?

"Hi Bo." I mumble into the phone, my voice far more tentative then it should be.

"Hi Lauren." I hear her respond as I felt my heart begin to flutter, it's beats echoing strongly against my chest and a feeling of warmth settle's into my stomach.

For the first time in a long time I feel content.

I feel like I'm home.

* * *

**A/N: Thank-you so much for taking the time to read this as well as the reviews that everyone has left, they are always welcome and appreciated as well as constructive criticism and ways by which to improve. Thank-you as well for the favourites and the follows. Special thank-you to Echo Galen for Betaing this.**


	4. Chapter 4

"Can you take a deep breath for me?" I can see the young woman nod, struggling to keep her eyes open from the exhaustion from the asthma attack she was enduring.

I can still hear a slight wheeze through the stethoscope I have pressed against her back as I listen to her lungs. The wheeze is also audible in her breathing still, but she doesn't sound as bad as when she first came in.

"Well you sound less like a squeaking clarinet now." I can see her smile sloppily at that, a few puffs of air passing with a tone of amusement from her.

"But you are still wheezing, so we're going to have to keep you on the treatment for a little longer okay?" I can see her make a face at the idea, and I can feel a twinge of sympathy for the young woman.

I smile at her slightly in reassurance as I pull the cold metal of the stethoscope away from her back and help her to place the mask back over her mouth and nose. Glancing up at the monitor on the wall I could see that her pulse ox was recovering well, but her heart rate was starting to climb.

An unfortunate side effect from the nebulizer no doubt. "I'm all done for now, but I'll be back to check on you in a little while okay? Just keep breathing in the medication and you'll be back at…"

I glance down at her chart. My eyebrow drifting upward when I read what had triggered the asthma attack in the first place.

Asthma attack due to… Quidditch?

Okay… It must have been the exercise.

"You'll be back on your broom in no time okay?" I can see her smile a bit before her eyes drift closed again.

Shaking my head I reach over and pull the curtain open enough to let me out of the Bay. Walking over to the desk I hand the chart over to Francis.

"Can you check up on her again in about five minutes please?" I ask.

I can see Francis glance up at me in response, his old and worn face pulling back into a smile.

"What?" I ask as I stare down at the short old man dressed in scrubs patterned with the human ear.

I don't quite know the story behind those, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure that I want to know.

"Someone's been awfully smiley lately." I shake my head and try to force a smile down, but it kept coming back, wanting to make an appearance and reflect the happiness I'm feeling on the inside.

"Lauren." I hear the sing-song voice of Francis call out, trying to bring me back to the reality. I glanced back down at the man sitting in his chair at the nurses station, an all to knowing smile on his lips, and a mischievous look settle into his eyes.

"So will you tell grandpa F what's going on?" But before I could open my mouth to refuse I heard someone else calling out my name from nearby.

"Dr. Lewis." Looking over to the side I can see Francine walking towards me, a gentle look on her face, although it was also one of annoyance.

When she reached the nurses station I felt her grab my wrist and lift it up, turning it over so that she could see the gauze still tapped over my marked wrist.

Despite the fact it had been almost a week it had yet to stop bleeding completely, something not unheard of, but rare. I could hear her sigh and tut as she looks down at the dressing that still covered my wrist.

"This bandage needs to be changed again Dr. Lewis. Would you come with me if you could spare a moment?" I glance around the ER, it was relatively quiet now, busy but not overcrowded.

They could spare me for a moment no doubt.

At least hopefully they could. Glancing up at the clock on the wall I felt my stomach drop when I noticed what time it was.

Ten to ten. I would have to take the evil little pill of fungus derivative soon. Growling slightly at the thought of swallowing another antibiotic I sigh and glance over at Francine.

If I went with her I would escape from Francis, who was no doubt fishing for juicy gossip stories, and possibly be able to put off the antibiotic for a minute or two.

On the other hand though if I were to walk away from Francis, it would be rude for one thing, and for the other he might…

I shuddered at the thought of what he might do to me, if it was anything like the last time with Larry...

I would end up going crazy from the stitching, and I might suddenly find myself with all the… _interesting_ patients.

Never anger the nurses was a lesson I had learned during my first month here when Larry did… something to anger Francis. I'm still not sure how exactly he managed to anger Francis to the point that the flamboyant old man decided that Larry should endure his wrath.

But when I glanced down at the wrist that Francine still held in her firm grip I knew that she was correct.

I was staring back at blood-tinged gauze again; the central part of the pattern hadn't stopped leaking yet, leaving an impression of tight waves and curling vines in the gauze. Another hour and the pad would be soaked in its entirety.

And that tended to scare the patients when it happened.

I'd already had one little girl scream when she saw my wrist as I put it in a glove.

She thought that a vampire had bitten me because that was the parts that had bled through the gauze at the time causing it to look I had two little puncture marks on my wrist.

Smiling at Francis I mumbled my apologies to him before allowing Francine to lead me to one of the empty exam rooms. I could hear him grumbling something to himself as she lead me over to the room, her hold on my wrist none-to-gentle, as if she were afraid that I was going to run away. Although I had to wonder where she thought I would run.

"Do you want to hop up onto the table for me Dr. Lewis? I already have everything that we need to get your bandage changed." I smile gratefully at Francine as I walk over and hop up onto the exam table, the paper covering on the table crinkling as it was disturbed.

"Thank-you Francine for doing this for me." I say as I play with the corner of the tape covering my mark.

The black lines that marred my wrist, and the mark that connected me to Bo in ways that were far beyond our current understanding of the natural world. I glanced up at Francine as she pattered around at an area near the countertop. I could see her putting supplies onto the tray that we used for bandaging people sometimes.

"Dr. Lewis? May I ask you if you were ever able to track down that young woman who came in that night? The one that left you with the mark on your wrist?"

I can't help but allow laughter to escape and a smile to cross my lips at the mention of Bo and that infamous visit of hers. I had been right that it would get around the hospital, and just like I had thought it would it spread far to quickly for this places own good.

"I'll take it by the laughter and that beautiful smile on your lips that you found her didn't you? Your soulmate?" I smile again and shake my head a little bit as Francine sits down in front of me on the wheeled stool.

"It's more like she found me." I say as I begin to tell her about my frantic search through the internet for Bo.

"You ended up finding her grandmother?" I laugh and nod again because as it had turned out that picture of the old woman I had stumbled upon was her grandmother.

"Her obit but yes I did indeed find her long and dearly departed grandma."

"And as it turned out the name that she gave us was not her proper one?"

"No, she goes by Bo but it's a nickname for Ysabeau." Which was exactly why I couldn't track her down because of course her name was a nickname. Although I do have to question how I was supposed to know that it was a nickname for Ysabeau. "But then again she had a much easier time tracking me down. I'm in Canada411 under my name, the one that I gave her, and she had my workplace as well."

I can see Francine pause for a moment before her eyes lit up in recognition, and laughter escaped from her lips as her gloved hands reached down to pull the bandage off, the pain minimized by years of experience and training. "That may well have been my doing Dr. Lewis, a woman called the desk and said that she wanted to thank-you for treating her, but she couldn't get a hold of you because…"

"I was at home bleeding half to death?"

"You did end up back in the ER that night because of how much of your blood volume you lost."

I sighed and snorted at the memory of Tamsin dragging me back into the ER that night. Apparently I had and I quote, "Lost my body weight in blood to that stupid mark of yours. Your blood if flowing out of you like a river. And I'm getting sick of changing the gauze every two hours you nitwit! So we're going back to the hospital where _they_ can actually do something about your stumbling bloodless self"

I had gotten a lecture on blood volume for a detective who couldn't tell me the difference between plasma and whole blood.

And then Ciara had chimed in.

And I had ended up in my place of work again less than a day later.

"You know Dr. Lewis I don't remember my mark filling in being as bloody as yours was." Smiling at Francine I shrugged my free shoulder a bit. The amount of bleeding I was doing was not without precedence in the literature, most people had to sleep with an absorbent pad on their bed the night of their sixteenth birthday because of the bleeding that they would endure as their marked filled in painlessly overnight.

"It's fine… it's just good to finally have it. Without the mark I used to get looks of sympathy from total strangers." I could see Francine's eyes become distant for a moment as she paused, the gauze that she was holding to my wrist being applied with far too much pressure.

I could feel the tingling beginning to set in my fingers, my hand growing heavy as the blood flow was cut off due to the pressure.

"Francine?" I called out, trying to get her attention, in an attempt to get her to let go of my wrist, and to stop cutting off the flow of the blood to my right hand.

"Francine! My hand." I call out a little louder in an attempt to get her attention. I could see her blink slightly, her head shaking lightly as she came back to herself. She smiled at me before she released my hand.

I shook it lightly in an attempt to get the blood flow to return to my hand. "I apologize Dr. Lewis, your comments simply brought back some memories of mine."

I wanted to ask her what was going on, but before I could she began to talk once again, asking me questions about Bo.

I could see her mouth moving, asking me far to many questions for me to respond to at once, and I was unable to answer the majority of the questions that she had asked.

"I'm sorry Francine, most of those I don't know the answer to. It hasn't come up yet in any of our talks, well mostly texting." I smile as I begin to tell Francine a little more about Bo. "She's a student right now, perusing a Ph.D. in Psychology. I actually stumbled across her masters thesis as I was trying to dig up any information I could find on her."

"So you're dating a doctor." I hear her laugh as she begins to tape the gauze pad over my wrist. "You say that you've been texting? Have you not met her properly yet?"

I glanced at her, an eyebrow raised. She had been on shift every time that I had been on for the last week. I hadn't had a day off since the day after my mark appeared. And Bo was busy as well, incredibly so actually. She was beginning to work on the last stages of her dissertation as well as finishing up with her research.

"We haven't had time. She's busy and I'm busy, and our schedules haven't matched. Or at least…" I smiled as my hand drifted to the phone that was resting in my lab coat pocket.

"I can see it in your smile Dr. Lewis, you're going to be meeting her, officially, for the first time soon aren't you?"

I can feel my smile widen as I nod my head. "Tomorrow actually. We're meeting in the park. I… right now it feels a little surreal I guess." I mumble.

I can feel her pat my knee gently as she presses the final piece of tape to cover the gauze over my mark. "It's real Dr. Lewis. You have proof of that on your wrist. If you had not met her, I wouldn't be tapping up your wrist yet again now would I?"

I smile at Francine again, and squeeze the hand resting lightly against my knees. "I know."

"Anytime Dr. Lewis. Now do you have pictures of this young woman?" I laugh as I reach in to pull out my phone and show her the picture of Bo and her roommate Kenzi, that Bo had sent me.

* * *

A shrill beeping penetrated the darkness that had surrounded me, pulling me from the comfortable cocoon of sleep and back into the horrible and evil real world where I wasn't allowed to sleep. Reaching over I groped around on my nightstand trying to find that infernal pager of mine as the incessant vibrations and beeping continued.

I wanted so badly to curl back up in a ball and continue to get the sleep I so desperately wanted.

But I had a duty to my patients and to the hospital to come in whenever they called me.

Which was often.

And sleep-deprivation inducing.

Slowly I lifted myself up off the bed, using my free hand to support my weight as my hand continued to skitter along the dresser, trying to find the pager of annoyance. But as my hands got closer to the vibrations they came into contact not with something bulky and rounded, but a solid slab.

Cold metal.

Not hard plastic.

My phone.

It was the alarm that I had set to go off at four to wake me up so that I would take my antibiotics in time.

A groan escaped me as I collapsed back onto my bed, the pillow top of the mattress far to comfortable for my own good. All I wanted to do was curl up and go back to sleep and escape from the world of evil alarms and evil fungi.

"Lauren!" I heard a voice yell from the outside of my door, followed by hark quick knocks on the door. "Would you turn off your goddamn alarm? Some of us need sleep you know!"

And there was Tamsin, sans her morning coffee.

She was a real ray of sunshine first thing.

I could hear a growl on the other side of the door before it was unceremoniously yanked open, revealing an irate Tamsin. There was light from the hallway shinning in from behind her, making it look as if she was emerging from the fires of hell, the entire front of her body shrouded in shadows from the darkness of my bedroom. But she was dressed in possibly the least threatening pyjamas I had ever seen her in.

Dancing ice-cream cone pyjama pants. Where…

Oh right. I had seen Ciara wandering around in those far to many mornings for that to be a coincidence.

I then burst out laughing when I realized what exactly the sight in front of me was. Tamsin and Ciara's tastes in clothing couldn't be anymore different, and yet Tamsin had obviously stolen these.

"What are you…"

"Did you forget to look in the drawers before you took out pyjamas again?"

"What the hell are you talking about Scrubs?"

"Look down." I snorted out before I burst into another fit of laughter. The pyjamas really did not suit Tamsin at all. They are probably the furthest thing from intimidating that I can think of, especially on Tamsin.

"I'm wearing the dancing ice-cream cone pants again right?"

Another round of laughter was the only answer that I could give her.

I could hear another growl escape from her before I heard the thuds of her footsteps crossing the room towards me. The angry thump they made against the floor only muffled by the carpeting on the ground.

Reaching over I used the hand that was resting on my nightstand to turn on the bedside lamp. I could see the expression on Tamsin's face contort in confusion for a moment before a slight smirk appeared on her lips, and a snicker began to escape.

"Huh?" I ask as I look at Tamsin, my eyebrows raised in confusion. What had made her go from her normal grumpy morning self and turn her into a snickering mess?

"Your face!" I heard her say, her voice thick with mirth and controlled laughter.

"What about it?"

"You look like…" She couldn't finish the sentence as she burst out laughing at me. Reaching over I grabbed the still vibrating and beeping phone and unlocked it, turning the alarm off in the process.

Quickly I tapped on the phone app and switched it over to the front facing camera. And I couldn't help but snicker a bit when I saw myself as well. Apparently I had fallen asleep on my pager without realizing it, as the impression of front side was now impressed upon my face.

How did I not notice that? But then when I glanced down I also noticed that I was still wearing my scrub top. I must have pulled it back on after my shower by accident as I stumbled into bed in a half-asleep daze.

Sighing I quickly got myself out of bed and walked over to my dresser. Pulling out an actual pyjama top I walked over to the bathroom, quickly closing the door behind me, one of my hands reaching out to turn the bathroom light on.

"Come on Laur, it doesn't look that bad!" I heard Tamsin call out.

She was still snickering at this point. Shaking my head I pulled my scrub top over my head, folding it neatly and placing it on the counter next to the sink. I would have to put that in with the matching pants so that I could wash them later today before I left to go and see Bo.

Looking down at my bandaged wrist I sighed a little bit as the nervousness settled into the pit of my stomach. I couldn't help but wonder what it would feel like to see her again. If I would feel that same pull, that same magnetism towards her.

The one that drew me so close to her and didn't want to let go of me. I could already feel something for her starting to grow in me, despite the fact that I barely knew her.

Sighing I tore my eyes away from my wrist as I reached over and pulled the short-sleeve pyjama shirt over my head. Pulling the scrub top off of the counter I reached over and opened the door, turning the lights off in the process.

I could see Tamsin lying down over the covers on the side of my bed that was pretty much hers when she decided she wanted it to be, and had been hers for a while when we'd shared a bed most nights back in university.

"You staying in here?" I asked as I walked over to where my backpack was sitting on the ground, kneeling down I reached out to undo the side pocket that held my antibiotics before opening the main part and grabbing my bottle of water.

"You know how Ciara is if she get's woken up. Especially know."

"You mean how you are?"

"I guess so."

"You're a monster without your coffee."

"I'm better then Ciara!"

Shaking my head I quietly popped the antibiotic into my mouth before I swallowed it with a gulp of water. Honestly they were both equally horrible without coffee.

I could feel myself making a face at the taste of the antibiotic as is went down my throat. Shaking my head I glanced down at the little bottle of evil.

Only two more days and then I would be done the spawn of the devil. The useful spawn of the devil, but still the spawn of the devil.

"Lauren?" I glance over at Tamsin as I set the antibiotics down on my nightstand along with the bottle of water I used them for. Ready for the next time that I woke p and had to take them.

"What is it?" I ask as I yawn, my exhaustion beginning to come back to me as my body realizes how little sleep it had been getting as of late.

"Today's the day that you meet Bo again isn't it?" Looking over at Tamsin I nod, my eyebrow raised a little in confusion over why she was asking me about that of all things. Tamsin had known about that since the day we had planned it.

"Why do you ask now of all times Tamsin?"

I could hear her sigh, her eyes drifting away from where they had been gazing into mine to stare at the wall near the side of the bed she was resting on.

I could hear her sigh as she began to twiddle her thumbs a little bit. "I just… I don't know how to…"

"Tamsin?" I try gently as I walk over to sit down on her side of the bed. Did something happen with Ciara while I was asleep?

The odds were low, they bickered and had small fights often, but the explosive ones were few and far between, and they had been getting along well lately. Or… she mentioned Bo and me meeting her for the first, well maybe it was really the second time, if you counted talking for a minute and then collapsing and passing out as a first encounter.

"Tamsin?" I try again, calling her name gently, reaching out to grab one of her hands. "What is it?"

I heard her sigh again, her hand squeezing mine as her gaze turned back towards mine. I could see her eyes full and watery, and that was all I needed to know.

"It'll be okay." I mumbled as I reached over to pull her into a hug. Even after all this time she still wondered sometimes. "I'm not going to walk out this time and I certainly won't forget about you."

I pulled back slightly and shaking my head, reaching up to wipe away the tears that had built up in the corner of her eyes.

"You're my best friend." I heard her whisper. Smiling I pulled her close to me as I maneuvered us so that we were lying down on my bed.

"What'll Ciara think when she sees us snuggled up like this do you think?"

I could hear her snicker slightly against my shoulder, her voice cracking a little bit as she spoke. "Probably angry. Although that might be because I stole her favourite pyjamas not that I'm in here with you again."

"Remember that one time she found us passed out half-naked in here?"

I could hear her snicker again at the memory. "That was the time we both ended up so drunk we thought we that trying to sleep together would be a good idea right?"

I laughed at the memory of the next morning, although it certainly hadn't been funny at the time, it was hilarious now to watch Tamsin trying to reason with an irate Ciara.

"That was the morning that you two kissed for the first time wasn't it?"

"Yeah this was back when she was sleeping on the couch right? Because her douche of an ex had kicked her out."

"Whatever happened to him?"

"I kicked his ass when I found out why he had kicked her out."

"It was because he thought she was cheating on him with you right?"

"Yeah. And because he thought that our marks matched and he was raging at the idea of losing Ciara to me because "just because she _might_ be your soulmate." Idiot never met his match obviously."

I couldn't help but raise my eyebrow as I shifted down slightly so that I could look her in the eye. "You never mention that part of the story before."

"I couldn't Scrubs. Whether I like it or not, it's impossible to explain because it's so hard to find words to explain what happens when you meet that one special person for the first time."

"It feels… magnetic." I mumbled.

"Exactly and up until know I didn't know if you would ever get your mark or not, and the experience isn't exactly something that you can't describe."

"And after everything that happened with Katherine…"

"Yeah." I was never someone who had really believed in the marks and what their connections meant. I had seen the manifestations before, but I had never seen or felt the connection, or felt the manifestations of all of this.

It was fascinating and in a strange way it was poetic, and whenever I was with Bo it felt _right_.

"I get it." I mumbled as I propped myself up on my elbow.

"What do you get exactly?"

"Why you and Ciara stay together." Which wasn't exactly something I ever understood, they got along well, but at times I wondered just how compatible they were. Now I think I understand it a little more.

"You get that feeling when you're with her huh?" I nod as I lay back down, allowing my body to sag into the bed.

"I can be pretty much 100% certain about Bo given that…"

"Your mark manifested in fire and blood? Yeah. It's a little hard to get anymore certain then that Laur."

"But you and Ciara have never had the scan to check for sure that your marks match have you."

I could see her shrug a bit, the shoulder that wasn't pinned against the bed moving up and down in an exaggerated motion. "Sometimes you have to know when you know. How do you think they did it for the hundred years after the marks got harder to read and tell apart?"

I shrugged. "I guess I just prefer science and knowing for sure."

"And this is one time I think that I'll trust my heart instead."

I yawned as I curled into Tamsin's warmth. It felt nice to have another person in bed with me again, even if it wasn't exactly the person who I would like to be in here with me.

"Hey Lauren?"

"What is it?" I yawn as I reach out and flick the lamp off.

"Do you want me to drive you to the park tomorrow to meet her?"

I don't know if she could see my smile in the dark, but if she could then she should already know the answer.

Reaching out and grabbing her hand lightly I squeezed it again and smiled and I spoke again. "That would be amazing."

* * *

Slowly I took the first steps into the park. I could feel my nervousness buzz through me, giving me far too much energy and no outlet through which to channel it.

And there was also a feeling of anticipation, my constant companion throughout the day as I had struggled to get ready.

"Scrubs!" I heard Tamsin call out from behind me. Turning around I could see her standing there, a genuine smile on her face. "Good luck."

Laughing I wave at her and shake my head before gesturing for her to go and leave me alone. "I'll be fine Tamsin."

"You sure you don't need me to stay?"

Laughing I walk over to her I turn her around and begin to shove her in the direction of our car. "You need to get home."

"Lauren…" I hear her whisper and something in her voice makes me stop pushing her in the direction of the car.

As soon as I lifted my hands away from her leather jacket she turned around and grabbed me in a hug. I froze for a moment before in surprise at the embrace that Tamsin had dragged me into.

"Are you sure that you don't want me to stay with you Lauren?" I heard her whisper in my ear. Slowly I allowed my arms to wrap around her waist, pulling her a little closer to me.

"Thank-you Tamsin. Thank-you…" I whisper in her ear before I pull back, smiling as I do. No matter how much I wanted her to be here with me But I also slap her lightly on the arm, and laugh at her.

I can see her frown, her eyebrows rising in confusion before she shoves me away, a familiar smirk settling on her lips. "Let me know if I need to kick her ass 'kay?"

I smile and laugh nodding as I shove her lightly in the direction of the car again. "I will okay?"

I can feel her hand wrapping my own, and silently I squeeze her hand before I shove her off towards the car.

"Go!" I yell as I shove her towards the parking lot again.

I can see Tamsin hesitate for a minute, the muscles in her back tense as if she was trying to prevent herself from looking backward. I wonder how long she stood there for before she began to walk away, moving towards the car.

Smiling I force myself to take a breath and begin to walk back towards the entrance to the park.

As I enter the main park I glance around, trying to find Bo in the main park of the city. Although I was hard pressed to try to find a brunette woman in the crowd that had come out today, probably trying to enjoy one of the last warm weekends for the year.

Slowly as I walked forward I could have sworn I caught site of a brunette sitting on the bench, under one of the big trees. Slowly walking forward I was about to call out when I caught site of the face on the brunette.

Oh no…

I held my breath as I took a few steps forward, trying to confirm what I was hoping against all hope. But as I continued to walk forward, the person's face and clothing came more and more into focus.

And the person I was seeing was all too familiar.

I could feel a chill run down my spin as I caught sight of a familiar haircut, the button-up shirt that she was wearing, and the brown slacks. I couldn't recognize the glasses that sat perched on the bridge of her nose, but I did recognize the style, they were the only kind that had ever looked good on her.

Slowly, I began to back up, trying to get myself lost in the hustle and bustle of the people around me. I know that if she sees me she will try to come over and talk, try to explain herself and what had happened. We had done this dance two or three times before today, but I couldn't face her.

I still couldn't face her even after this time. I…

The thought of even having to try to talk to her caused tears to well up in my eyes as the memory of that day came back far more brightly and vividly then I would ever like to experience.

Glancing back over at Katherine I could see the crowd around her had thinned out a little bit, revealing to me that she was holding the hand of a dark-haired woman, her build slight and lithe.

That must be Natalie, the woman who Katherine left me for all that time ago, although it was much shorter than it had felt. I had never actually seen her before now, and grudgingly I had to admit that she was beautiful, high and sharp cheekbones, small nose, and what looked like beautiful blue eyes all framed by shoulder length dark hair.

She was certainly stunning, and most definitely Katherine's type. I wanted to stare at them a little longer, to see what exactly had provoked Katherine to leave me for her but… I sigh and shake my head.

What would be the point?

This was _my_ chance to start over again, to try and put the horrible scars memories that Katherine left me with, and to try and finally begin to move on from that place that her memory seemed far to intent to drag me back to. I forced myself to take a breath and bring my hand up to wipe away the tears that had gathered in my eyes.

Now was not the time to begin to cry over her again. I was going to be meeting Bo soon, and I needed to go and try to find our meeting place, I couldn't get distracted by my ex and her soulmate. That was the last thing I wanted or needed, I was going to meet Bo properly today, after weeks of texting back and forth, finally.

I smiled as I reached down and pulled out my phone, quickly unlocking it and pulling up my messages.

_Cant wait to meet u! So excited Lo! _

_See u soon Lauren. :) _

_Hopefully you don't pass don't this time. _

I had responded to that last one with a stuck out tongue. Of all of our meetings that she could have remembered she chose to remember that one. I quickly move around the park and try to find my way to a place that Tamsin had down me a long time ago, one that Katherine did not know about.

"Lauren?" I heard a voice that was all too familiar to me call out. Without even looking back I quickly begin to walk away, my eyes continuing to scan the crowd as I searched for Bo, hoping against hope that if Katherine saw her with me she would think that she had mistaken me for someone else.

The ploy had worked before with Ciara, someone who Katherine had only seen with Tamsin and I once before.

Although that may have simply been Katherine not wanting to see me either given that it had only been weeks after she had left.

Quickly I glance backward, trying to see what was going on behind me, through the gaps in the crowd I could see my ex walking towards me. Gulping quickly I begin to walk as fast as I can without beginning to run.

Glancing around, my eyes scanning the crowd as I continue to make my way towards the bathrooms, I catch sight of someone whose face I could never forget. I felt myself beginning to slow my pace down as I took in the image on Bo, taking in the thought that this was only my second time seeing her in person. I felt a tug in my stomach the nervousness of the moment taking over me, my heart pounding as I swallowed, my throat becoming dry. I could feel a different tug, one from deep within my heart, my soul, urging me to go towards her. There was a heat building up within me as I took in her beauty even with the distance of what had to be maybe 15 meters between us.

"Lauren!" I hear Katherine's voice call out again, her voice filled with something that I couldn't identify, but whatever it was snapped me out of the trance that seeing Bo had placed me in. I gulped as I glanced backward at Katherine before my eyes drifted over to Bo again as if they were drawn by magnets. I wanted so badly to go to her, but… I glanced backward and saw a large crowd of people had blocked Katherine's way. I could see her trying to find her way around them and as I realized what was going on I took the chance offered to me and began to run again.

I wasn't ready to see her yet, and I certainly wasn't about to drag Bo into my problems. I did not want our first meeting tainted by the appearance my ex-girlfriend and her soulmate.

Soulmates or not my first impression had already been… unique. Our first formal meeting did not need to end with a chase from my ex.

"Lauren!" I hear another distinct voice call out, the timber lighter than Katherine's, higher and a little sweeter. The way she spoke my name in an all to familiar tone, the way the syllables rolled off her tongue.

She had spotted me.

Oh no.

"Bo." I mumble to myself as I glance to the side quickly, a look of what seems to be worry on her face. I swallow heavily as I turn my head back to the blurring park around me. I could feel the looks of confusion on the people who I passed as I ran towards the bathroom.

If I could just…

I felt my phone vibrate on my hip as I ran towards the bathrooms.

I could very easily guess what the text message said, but at the moment I couldn't bring myself to care in this moment.

I _needed_ to get away from Katherine.

The caught sight of a concrete and brick building a few meters away from me and I couldn't help but laugh in relief when I saw the building. My eyes leapt left and right as I scanned between the building trying to find the pathway that lead to the more secluded part of the park that Tamsin had shown me once when we had come here years ago.

I glanced back once again, the crowd of people between her and I had yet to dissipate.

This was my only chance and I had to take it.

Hoping against all hope just as I reached the building I turned to the left before I quickly turned myself right again when I caught sight of the old red brick path that Tamsin had shown me. Quickly I took off down the path, the grey of the low cinderblock walls on either side blurring together with the green and brown of the trees as I continued to run.

My lungs began to burn painfully, and my heart was racing in my ears for a whole different reason now.

But finally I caught sight of what I had been looking for, a small pathway that lead off the main trail.

Turning to the left I slowed down slightly, jogging down the path until I came to a halt near the entrance to a circular clearing, with a fountain in the centre surrounded by wooden benches. Slowly walking over to a slightly hidden area near the entrance I sat, well flopped really, down on the ground next to a bench.

I leaned my forehead against the cool metal of the armrest as I panted trying to catch my breath. It has been probably a decade since I've run like that. Shifting slightly I groaned when the pain in my legs let me know that I pushed the muscles far beyond their limits.

"What am I going to do know?" I spoke aloud to myself as I panted. I forced my legs to cross so that they weren't sticking out from behind the bench despite the painful protests that the muscles gave.

I glanced around the clearing, but despite the beauty in front of me all I could feel was anger boiling up within me.

"Why?" I growled out.

How was it far that every time something seemed to be going my way, every time something seemed to be going right with Bo, something came along to mess it up?

"Argh." I growled out in frustration before I forced myself to take a breath and calm down.

What good would being angry do me?

None.

But I still couldn't help but feel the anger bubble within me, an unhappy monster trying to gnaw me from the inside out.

And there was also something else there.

Sadness.

So I have a black hole and a monster for company while I hide.

Great I think as I roll my eyes, just what I needed.

I sigh as I pull out my phone quickly sliding to the unlock screen before I can read the message on it.

Typing in my password I can feel some apprehension twist in my gut as well as a little bit of curiosity.

I can see the little red circle containing a one as my screen appears, but as my thumb hovers over the message I hesitate before I shake my head and slide the screen over, opening up one of the e-reader apps on my phone.

Might as well make use of the hiding time.

I can't help but grumble a little when I see the only book that was still stored in the app was one I hadn't needed since first year medical school. I allow my thumb to drift down from the screen, pressing against the button that would close the app for a moment before sighing as my thumb drifts over and taps on the little book icon and I settle into reading over my gross anatomy text-book from medical school.

* * *

I can feel my mouth twitch slightly as I read over the section on eyeballs.

Closing my eyes I shudder a little as the memory of _that_ _day_ came to mind. It may have been a funny story to tell afterwards but at the time it was not an experience that I ever want to live through again.

Quickly closing the e-reader app I glance at the clock on the main-screen of my smartphone.

It had been almost half an hour.

That should be more than enough time for Katherine to have searched through the park and realized she wasn't going to find me. She would simply give up if she realized something was futile, she always had, and I doubted that searching for me would be any different.

Sighing I reach out to grab the arm rest of the park bench I had been sitting next to for the past half an hours and pulled myself up.

Stumbling slightly I allowed my hand to hold onto the bench for a little while longer. My legs were stiff with cold from sitting on the paving stones for the last thirty minutes. Slipping my smartphone back into the holder clipped to my belt I slowly and awkwardly began to move towards the entrance to the clearing, and down the path.

It was beautiful, I couldn't help but notice as I glanced up at the sky, turning orange from the fading sun, the fading disk was casting long shadows on the areas it's ray could creep through. It would be a beautiful sight to see if I could get away through the foliage.

I walked slowly though, taking my time and trying to savour what little peace and quiet I could get because I would soon be returning to an empty apartment. Tamsin would be on night-shift now and Ciara did not always sleep over when Tamsin wasn't home. So the odds were good I would be returning to an empty apartment.

And right now I really wanted to talk to someone about what had happened to me. But I realized, as my eyes drifted around at the trees, at least this would make for an interesting story to tell Tamsin when she did get back.

I shook my head, and sighed in relief when I caught sight of the entrance to the main area of the park.

Slowly I emerged, squinting slightly at fading sun.

It was a beautiful sight, just as I had thought it would be. The sunlight was dyeing everything beautiful shades of orange and red, with traces of faded yellow mixed in.

Glancing around I paused for a moment as I stopped to take in the simple beauty of the sun setting over the park, shivering slightly as a cold wind blew through me.

The leaves would begin to change soon I noted as my eyes drifted lazily over the trees, and winter would come soon after. It was never a long separation between the two, but each offered their own beauty in a way.

The colours of the fall leaves, and the pure white of the freshly fallen snow as it covers everything within its reach.

But still, I smile as I glance at the sunset at least not everything changes.

Slowly my eyes sweep over the park. It was deserted now; there was not a person in sight.

But as I stepped further into the main area of the park I caught sight of someone, a brunette, leaning against one of the trees nearby. I can see her back turned towards me, long hair partially hiding a brown leather jacket.

I smile slightly as I continue to walk towards the exit of the park, but my footsteps must have caught her attention because when she turns around I can see what looks like a familiar face, her eyes moving to meet mine. Slowly I take a few more steps forward, trying to get her face to come

"Lauren?" Bo's voice, confirming what I was seeing with my eyes. The familiar tone of her voice as she called out my name spreading warmth through me. "Lauren!"

I can feel the shock run through my body as I mouth her name before I repeat it aloud, calling out to her in return. "Bo!"

I see her nod once and as I walk begin to walk towards her slowly, but as I continue to cross the park my feet begin to hit the cobble stone faster and more frequently and before I can stop myself I'm running towards her. My muscles aching in protest as I force them to move once again, pushing them far beyond their limit, but I ignore them in my happiness to see her at last.

I can see Bo moving towards me as well, and suddenly we meet in the centre, standing face to face as we pant. I can feel the disbelief run through me as I stare into her eyes.

Of all the things and all the clichés that have happened in my life, I never thought that this one could exist outside of the movies, and yet here I am.

This is almost to perfect in far to many ways.

Perchance to a dream? Maybe the blood loss is causing me to begin to hallucinate again.

But then I felt one of her hands come up and press against my cheek, her palm warm against the cool air that had started to come in as the sun began to set. I could see the smile on her lips and in her brown eyes as she stared at me.

And without even thinking I move my arms to wrap around her waist, pulling our bodies flush against each others. I could feel her warmth exuding from her through her clothes, as I tried to press myself as close to her as possible.

I could feel her thumb stroking my cheek as something within her eyes changed, almost as if she realized that this was real, and I was real. Just as she is real, here and solid in my arms, her body pressed flush against mine.

This feels… _right_.

And the magnetism I felt in her presence was gone, the force of attraction that drew me to her. It replaced by this feeling I couldn't describe, this warmth and this certainty, a sense of belonging and of trust.

It was absurd.

Yet it was intoxicating.

"Lauren…" I heard Bo whisper again, pulling me back into the real world. And slowly my gaze shifted upward slightly so that I can meet her gaze properly for the first time.

I can't help but smile at what I see as I lean a little closer to her, something pulling me to be as close to her as I can be.

I can feel her warm breath against my lips, and in turn I am sure she can feel mine.

I feel something within me shift as something overtakes me, and slowly but surely I lean in as my eyes begin to drift closed as I press my lips to hers.

The first touch of skin against skin is electric. I can feel my heart pounding against my chest, the beat echoing in my ears as I press my lips against her soft ones.

I cannot help but revel in the touch of her lips against mine, the feel, the taste, the touch, the electricity all things that I've felt before.

As well as another feeling, one that was new to me, but one I couldn't help but recognize, and reconcile with the person whose arms I was in.

The feeling of rightness that accompanied this kiss and this embrace that I was pulled into, the way we seemed to fit together like two pieces of a puzzle.

But all to soon this feeling had to come to an end as my lungs began to burn for oxygen, what little I was getting through my nose proving inadequate.

Slowly I pull away, panting slightly I lean my forehead against hers, as I see her eyes flutter open, a smile pulling at her lips.

"Hi." I hear her whisper.

And with laughter I respond to her and our all to familiar greeting.

"Hi." I mumble as I lean into her once again, our mouths meeting again as the last whispers of sunlight sank below the horizon.

* * *

**A/N: Thank-you so much for taking the time to read this as well as the reviews that everyone has left, they are always welcome and appreciated as well as constructive criticism and ways by which to improve. Thank-you as well for the favourites and the follows.**


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